
Glass. 
Book- 



ANCIENT 



DOMINIOiNS OF MAINE, 



EMBRACING 

THE EARLIEST FACTS, THE RECENT DISCOVERIES OP THE REMAINS 
OF ABORIGINAL TOWNS, THE VOYAGES, SETTLEMENTS, BAT- 
TLE SCENES, AND INCIDENTS OF INDIAN WARFARE, AND 
OTHER INCIDENTS OF HISTORY, TOGETHER WITH 
THE RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENTS OP SOCIETY 
WITHIN THE ANCIENT SAGADAHOC, 
SHEEPSCOT AND PEMAQUID PRE- 
CINCTS AND DEPENDENCIES. « 



By RUFUS king SEWALL, 

author of sketches of the city of st. augustine. 



B ATH : 
ELISHA CLARK AND COMPANY. 

BOSTON, MASS.: CROSBY AND NICHOLS. 

PORTLAND: SANBORN AND CARTER. 

185D, 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1859, by 
II. K. S EWALL, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Maine. 



STEREOTYrED AND PRINTED' B'V 3. TUURSTON, PORTLAND, ME. 






CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

ANTE-COLONIAL PKRIOD. 

Historical remains — Location — Pedcokcgowake — Antiquity of the 
relics — Remains of Nekrangan — Local features — Human remains — 
Observations — Exhumations — White Mountain views — Colonial ves- 
tiges — Suggestive features of the remains — Ruins accounted for — 
Norumbcgua — Historical view of the name — Locality — Personal ap- 
pearance of the ante-colonial inhabitants — "Weapons — Capital of the 
country — Court costume — Weymouth's treachery — Whale fishery at 
Pemaquid — Damariscotta, seat of ante-colonial empire — Aboriginal 
names — Arambec — Menikuk — Race inhabiting these cities — Succes- 
sion of races — Druidical suggestions — The Bashaba — His enemies — 
Wawennocks — Their end, . 13 



CHAPTER IL 

PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 

Gosnold at Kennebec — Bark Shallop — Wreck in Sheopscot Bay — 
Pring's voyage — Weymouth's voyage — Discovery of Monhegan — 
Anchorage and observations of the mainland — Pentacost Harbor — 
First view of the natives in Pentacost Harbor — Discovery of the Saga- 
dahoc — Native trade — Native deportment — Native canoe — Griffin's 
story — Natives kidnapped — Description and exploration of Pentacost 
Harbor — Bashaba's envoys — Primitive aspect of Long Reach — River 
explorations — Archangel towed to sea — Identification of the harbor 
anchorage — Summary — Discovery of fishing ground — Archangel's 
return to Europe — Effect of the discoveries on the public, . 55 



lY CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT. 

Gilbert and Popham's voyage — Extracts from journal of the voyage 

— Spanish shallop and natives — Boothbay and Kennebec — Landing 
at Pemaquid — Sabbath services on shore — Hostility of the natives — 
Desertion of Skitwarroes — The gale — Entrance to Sagadahoc — Se- 
lection of the site of a town — Possessory rites and ceremonies — Break- 
ing of ground for intrenchments — Explorations and adventures in the 
river — Face of the country — Altercation with river Indians — Over- 
tures of the sovereign of the country — First ship, the Virginia of Saga- 
dahoc — Death of Popham — Traditionary reminiscences — Conflict 
with the natives — Abandonment of colony — Monhegan settlements — 
Reckless voyagers — Harlow — Smith — Rocroft — Hunt — Dermer — 
Samosset at Boothbay Harbor — Damariscove — Sagadahoc — Sheep- 
scot — Pemaquid — Levett's voyage to Sheepscot — Acquisition of title to 
Bristol — State of society — Wreck at Boothbay Harbor — Plymouth 
estabhshment at Kennebec — Aid worth and Eldridge at Pemaquid — 
Description of Pemaquid — Lawlessness — Pirate Dixy Bull — Abraham 
Shurt's adventures at Piscataqua — Imprudence of the settlers — 
Plantations — Murder at Kennebec — Original price of the town of 
Woolwich — Robinhood, the sagamore of Sheepscot — Export of cattle 

— Condition of settlements — First death by drowning — Name of the 
State — John Parker's settlement — Original purchase of Westport — 
Birthplace of Phips, the Sheepscot ship-builder — His adventures and 
success — Population and staples of trade — Travel — Transfer of land- 
ed titles — John Mason, the Sheepscot proprietor — Civil condition of 
the settlements — First court organized at Merry Meeting — Price paid 
for the town of Bristol — Hamlets of Brown, Philips, Lake and Clark — 
Price paid for the town of Phipsburg — Hamlet of Rev. Robert Gutch 
at Long Reach — Death of Robert Gutch — Dukedom established — 
Newcastle a shire town — Convention of the people in the dukedom — 
Dissenters to ducal government — Purchase of Boothbay — Claims of 
Massachusetts — New Dartmouth — Yestigcs of ancient occupancy — 
Ancient chi-oiiicles of stone — Sheepscot settlements, ... 81 



CHAPTER IV. 

INDIAN AVARS. * 

Natural causes — Moral causes — Robinhood disturbed — King Philip's 
■war — Outrage on an Indian mother — Assault on the Purchase planta- 
tion — Slave traders in Massachusetts — Destruction of the Arrowsic 



CONTENTS. V 

towns — Devastation of Hammond Town — Sacking of Lake and Clark's 
village — Plantations abandoned — Incidents of the retreat — Card's 
escape — Abbott's adventures and escape from Damariscove — Wal- 
dron's expedition — Fortifications erected — Waldron's figlit at Pemar -^ 
quid — Return of the inhabitants — Return of Sheepscot planters — 
New Dartmouth re-occupied — Civil regulations — Peniaquid fostered — 
Temperance enforced by law — Laws of trade — Dongan's administra- 
tion — Military despotism — Andros' measures to receiver the country — 
Indications of fresh violence — Irregularities at the capital — Earliest 
appearance of existing family names — Dukedom merged in Massachu- 
setts — Andros restored to power — Recklessness of the Governor — 
Change of metropolitan interests from Pemaquid to Boston — Remon- 
strance of eastern citizens — Forts rebuilt — EtTects of the English Rev- 
olution — New ports of entry demanded — Conference of Colonial Gov- 
ernors — Treachery of Andros — Complaints of the people — Points of 
defense — Renewal of hostilities — Destruction of New Dartmouth — 
Battle at Pemaquid — Death of Judge Gyles and capture of his family 
— Fall of Jamestown — Trials of captivity — The bear hunt — Gaunt- 
let dance — The fright — The chastisement — Savcige cruelties, . 151 



CHAPTER V. 

WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 

Major Church — Fall of Annawon — Condition of country — Erec- 
tion of garrisons — Building of Fort Wm. Henry at Pemaquid — Condi- 
tion of the natives — Converse — Fi'ench influences — Mission of Sheep- 
scot John — Iberville's expedition — Investiture of Fort Wm. Henry — 
Naval demonstration at Pemaquid — Surrender of the fort — ISIarch in 
command — Battle of Damariscotta — Peace of Ryswick — Piracies — 
Queen Anne's war — Dudley's administration — Death of Ar-ru-hawik- 
wabenit — Fall of Nova Scotia — Re-settlement of the country — Build- 
ing of Augusta — Land Speculations — Rebuilding of Pemacjuid — Im- 
migration — Ancient remains of Phipsburg — Cambel's cellar — Rest- 
lessness of the natives — Pirate ship Widah — Blasphemy of Bellamy — 
Bellamy at Mechisses — Shipwreck and death of Bellamy — George- 
town incorporated — Conference at Georgetown — Response of Wiwur- 
na — Letter from Rall6 — Disgust of the Governor — Beginning of the 
American Revolutionary issues — Desolation of the country — Scotch- 
Irish immigration — Increase of population — Loron's remonstrance — 
Norridgewock expedition — Devastation of Merry Meeting — Dzunaris- 



TI CONTENTS. 

cotta laid waste — St. George attacked — Tilton's adventures at Dama- 
riscove — A scene of horror — Exasperation of the public — Battle of 
Arrowsic — Storming of the garrison — Temple and Penhallow's night 
attack — AVestbrook's expedition — Battle of St. George's River — Capt. 
Winslow's death — Savage fire-ships — Arrowsic invested — Battle of 
Norridgewock — Death of Bomaseen — Death of Father Ralle — Effects 
of Lovewell':) war — Samuel Trask's adventures — Damariscove attack- 
ed — Dummer's peace — Effects of the war — Truck-houses — Dagget's 
castle — Duck hunting — Hockomock — Great eewthquake, . 205 



CHAPTER VI. 

ANTE-RKVOLUTIOXARY PERIOD, 

Closing scenes of savage alarms — Dunbar emigration — Opposition of 
proprietors — Influence of the Scotch-Irish element — Dunbar towns — 
Walpole — Harrington — Townsend — Battle of Enniskillen and siege 
of Londonderry — Vaughn's enterprise — Wiscasset — Garrison house — 
Waldo immigration — Waldoboro' founded — Mrs. Porterfield's adven- 
tures — Shirley's administration — Spanish or triangular war — Fall of 
Loulsburg — Frontier home — Georgetown — Closing events of the pe- 
riod — Encounter with a Sheepscot bear — Death of the Albees — 
McNear's adventures — Cargill's escape — Long Edmund's perfidy — 
Resolute planter — Dresden plantation — City of Stirling In Bristol — 
Thomaston hamlet — Condition of the settlers — Sufferings of Waldo's 
colonists — Widow Blackledge's prayer — Sagacious cat — ]\Irs. Rines's 
relief — Cargill's inhumanity — Murder of Margaret Moxa — Hugh 
Paul's adventures — HostlHtles renewed — Casualties — Defenses of 
Wiscasset — Heroic soldier of St. George — McFarland's misfortunes — 
Murder at Wiscasset — Captive Fanny — Dresden assaulted — Expe- 
dition asainst Wiscasset — Battle of Wiscasset — Haunted gully — Mrs. 
Delano's escape — Death of Boynton — Planters massacred at Pema- 
quld — Topsham — Death of Rutherford — Preble's massacre — Attack 
on Harndcn's garrison — Capture at Long Reach — Twenty Cow par- 
ish — Kellock's achievement — Perils of frontier life — Final defeat of 
French and Indians — Wolfe's victory — Breaking up of garrison life — 
Lincoln County organized — State of society — Frontier missionary — 
Pownalboro' — Naval eminence of Bath — Abandonment of military 
defenses — Nobleboro* — Incorporation of Topsham — Incorporation of 
Bristol, 259 



CONTENTS. VII 

CHAPTER VII. 

AMKRICAX REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 

Question of property in white pines of Maine — Adventure of Com- 
modore Knowles — Riot in Boston — Lumbermen's controversy — Early 
religious developments — Freedom of opinion — Maine originally an 
Episcopal establishment — Congregationalism introduced — Rob't Gutch 
and his church — Death of Gutch — Religious institutions extinguished 

— Congregational proclivities of Sheepscot planters — Episcopal serv- 
ice at Pemaquid — Baxter and Gibson — Presbyterianism introduced — 
Rev. Robert Rutherford — Religious influence of the Dunbar emigration 

— Religious habits of the Presbyterians — Thomas Pierpont — McLana- 
than — Revival of Episcopacy in the valley of the Kennebec — Scotch 
Presbyterian piety — John Murray — Murray's favor with the people 
— Murray's departure — Action of the Boothbay people — Murray's return 
to Townsend — Organization of the church — Ordination of deacons 
and elders — First Communion — The great revival — Its effects on so- 
ciety — Murray's ministrations — Close of religious period, . 327 



INTEODUCTION. 



OUTLINES OF THE WORK. 



Nature and the Bible are the great text books, of which History is a 
running commentary of Providence. 

In History, the forces and principles of cause and effect, in their bear- 
ings on the state of man as developed in human actions, in the distribution 
of good and evil, are, or ought to be, illustrated. No study, therefore, is 
more full of interest or better fraught with more important instruction, 
giving so varied a scope to the exercise of the moral and intellectual pow- 
ers in a discipline so well adapted to store the head with useful and enter- 
taining knowledge, and train the life to natural and truthful impulses, as 
the studies of History ; and a taste for such studies is no mean indication 
of the intellectual and moral attamments of any people. 

History has a natural division into three views. The first relates to 
discovery ; the second treats of settlement and occupancy of the country ; 
and the third embraces an account of the accidents, disturbances, and 
disasters incident to the establishment of the homes of a new race. 

The Ancient Dominions of Maine in the Virginia of the North exhibit 
the vestiges of three grand convulsive epochs, growing out of the struggle 
of races in the collision of those seeking a new home with those in possess- 
ion of the soil ; the conflicts of rival states ; and the revolutionary issues in 
England, on the displacement of the reigning dynasty of the House of 
Stuart, and the elevation of the Prince of Orange to the throne. 

The Ancient Dominions of Maine, beginning in a series of European 
plantation hamlets on the Kennebec and Sheepscot waters, and around in 
the vicinage of the magnificent harbor of Boothbay — the Pentecost Har- 
bor of Geo. Weymouth's expedition, which in his account of discoveries 
became a center of attraction — at length were created a Dukedom ; and 



X INTRODUCTION. 

then transformed into a Province ; and finally consolidated into a County as 
the integrant part of a State. 

The phases and facts of these several changes we shall endeavor to 
sketch ; and shall follow more particularly the development of these 
changes in the facts detailed than in the more latent and philosophical 
exhibit of causes ; designing to give but a narrative of events according to 
the measure of our means and abilities — with a view to amuse and 
instruct, as well as to preserve what is fast going into oblivion. 

The view we shall take, therefore, within the " Ancient Dominions " of 
Maine, will embrace the facts written on the Earth's surface, found among 
the newly explored remains of the ruins of the ancient Arambec and 
Menikuk, towns of aboriginal existence on the Damariscotta and Sheep- 
scot waters during the ante-colonial period ; the voyages of discovery and 
settlement ; Indian battle scenes ; massacres and other historical details and 
incidents in the Social, Religious, and Civil development of the population 
within the ancient Sagadahock, Sheepscot, and Pemaquid precincts. 

Much more might be done, which must be left to other and abler pens, 
and shaped to meet a different aim than the purpose we have. 

R. K. SEW ALL. 
WiscASSET, July 13th, 1858. 



ANCIENT 



DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 



CHAPTER I. 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD 



HISTORICAL REMAINS. 

History has its philosophy, as well as philosophy its 
history. By the simple deductions of its philosophy, facts 
are gathered and grouped in their natural relations, and 
when this grouping suggests a rational solution, then the 
truth of history is manifested. 

Maine has a history — a past, hoary with age — pregnant 
with interest. To this interest we propose to add some 
natural and remarkable features, developed in a class of 
historic remains, exhumed at the vestibule of extensive 
ruins discovered in a section, in aboriginal days, called 
" Mavooshen," ^ and in the colonial period, known as the 
Province of Sag-adahock, where lie buried the ancient 
" Dominions of Maine." 

In the general method of this investigation, we shall go 
back to facts, and follow them up, and out, and through the 
tortuous and misty windings of the past, into the natural 
sun-light of .historic truth. 

The remains have locality within the precincts of Pema- 
quid and Sheepscot, of the ancient Sagadahock Province, 
points of the " Virginia of the North," so called two-and- 
one-half centuries ago, which, in the ante-colonial periods of 

1 Gorges' Narrative, vol. 2, p. 62, M. H. Coll. 



14 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

North American History, glowed along our wild shores, with 
surpassing attraction in England, as centers of interest to 
the colonial enterprises of the age. 

The relics to be exhibited are not the fragmentary re- 
mains of crumbling walls of deserted palaces — are not 
found under piles of sculptured granite and marble — in 
broken columns, prostrate arches, gigantic architectural 
wastes, but in a series of facts disposed in natural order. 

These facts appear, first, in vestiges of human life and 
human homes, now traceable on the earth's surface ; and 
second, in rumors floating in tradition, wafted by voices of 
the remotest antiquity, whose echoings from the. depths of a 
wild and unexplored interior, have fallen on the ear of the 
earliest voyagers shaped into names out of aboriginal sounds ; 
and third, in the disclosures of an imagery peculiar to the 
conception of the aboriginal mind, painting everywhere, in 
the names of persons and places, a legible significancy. 

"When laid bare in naked detail, these facts all seem to 
sympathize in their more important features, indicative of a 
common origin and a cotemporaneous existence ; and when 
grouped in their natural relations to cotemporaneous events, 
expose in clear and full relief on the shadowy past, traces 
of humanity, in towns, cities, centers of human aggregation 
and resort, which resolve the shadows that have long glided 
before the vision of the antiquary on the outmost verge of 
our historic perspective, into a people — a race and their 
homes, in the heart of Lincoln County, at our very doors, long 
since gone and forgotten from the scenes of human life and 
action. " Shadows indeed we are, and shadows we pursue ;" 
yet "life is real, life is earnest, and the grave is not its goal." 
Hence, those departing leave behind them footsteps on the 
sands of time. It is in these footprints of life on the past of 
our own river banks, hill-tops, head-lands and islands, filling 
in our own landscape, we would trace the history of the past. 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 15 

LOCALITIES OF ANCIENT REMAINS. 

In the exploration of the localities of the facts, the head- 
waters of the Damariscotta River demand our first atten- 
tion. The topography of the place is peculiar. The head- 
waters of this river are received and emptied from two res- 
ervoirs, at different elevations. In the times of the earliest 
European dwellers there, Walter Philips and the Taylors, 
the upper reservoir was called the "/rcsA," ^ and the lower 
" the salt pond," in the aboriginal conveyances at that time. 

Over the rocky rim of the upper reservoir, the redundant 
waters are precipitated by a fall of fifty feet, into the salt pond 
below. Amid the primeval wildness and solitude of this 
region, the o'er leaping volume of water formed a cascade, 
whose roar merged and softened with the distant rumble of 
the tides through a gorge over the falls of the salt pond 
below, where the commingled waters are lost in the flux and 
reflux of the sea, in the savage mind laid foundation for 
the use of an expressive aboriginal term descriptive of the 
place, called " Ped-coke-gowake," ^ meaning " the place of 
thunder," as well as from the fact the forest trees thereabout 
were often scarred with lightning strokes, in early days. ^ 
The margins of the lower reservoir, overhung witli a forest 
fringe of stately, sheltering oaks and pine — a land-locked 
expanse, whose bosom swelled with rounded islands of invit- 
ing loveliness, heaving also, with aquatic life — a basin, 
whose walls and floors were inlaid with beds of the luscious 
oyster,^ — must have combined attractions as a center of 
human resort unsurpassed, unless we except the " Coont^ 
islands," environed with oyster beds and mullet shoals, 
near the Everglades of Florida. This is a natural and 
obvious deduction. 

1 Walter Philips' deed, Commissioners' Report on L. Co. 2 French or- 
thography " Ped-aug-hi-ouk."— Ralle. 3 J. G. Huston, Esq. 

4 The neighboring Sheepscot and the water beds thereabout, still afford 
this delicious shell-fish, though nearly destroyed by the mill dust. 



1(5 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

REMAINS OP PEDCOKEGOWAKE. 

In conformity with this view, on the margins of this very 
basin, where the grandeur of primeval forest shadows, and 
the sublime echoings of the voices of nature combine to 
invite — where, with lavish hand, she has stored mex- 
haustible resources for human subsistence, we find those 
facts and features, luhich usually mark the sites of human 
homes and jjopulousness, in the accumulation of deposites 
of the offal of a vast horde of human eaters. 

Opportunities of personal observation, in a passage inland, 
through the lagoons of the coasts of eastern and southern 
Florida, from the mouth of the St. Lucia to the bar of St. 
Augustine, have given practical views of shell-deposits on 
the margins of water-courses, as the offal of human subsist- 
ence. The general features are alike, nortli and south; and 
the deposites of shell offal about the head-waters of the 
Damariscotta resemble those marking the points of favorite 
resort and habitation to the savage Seminole, or earlier 
Calos tribes, of Florida, in the oyster-bearing sections of 
that land of flowers and flies. 

Tiie rim of the lower basin of the head-waters of the 
Damariscotta, whose regurgitating tides receive and empty 
the over-leaping waters of the fresh pond above, suggesting 
to the mind of the simple native, the place of thunder, in 
detached places, is wliarfed off (in the expressive language 
of the Hon. Ebenezer Farley) by the successive aggregation 
of the shells of the oyster, exhibiting different stages of de- 
composition. 

1654. ANTIQUITY OP THE RELICS. 

Two centuries ago, the deposites here were noted in the 
records of the earliest European residents, as " the great ^ 
bank of oyster shells — and oyster shell neck;" and were 

1 Pierce's deposition, Commissioners' Reports, L. C. records. 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 17 

then remarkable features on the face of the earth. The 
basin marghis on the west side arc heaped, covering an 
area of several rods, " twelve ^ to fifteen feet deep;" wdiile 
the east bank margins bear a less depth, but fall back in 
more extended superficies, so much less decomposed as to 
render the soil sterile and useless for cultivation. 

Below the basin and its marginal deposites described above, 
nearer the sea, a bold and picturesque head-land, terminating 
a tongue of land, stretching northward, exhibits a soil largely 
intermixed with the remains of the common species of the 
"mya," or clam, whose banks fronting the river's channel, in 
many places, seem to have been shingled with the offal re- 
mains of this shell-fish, the surface soil being thoroughly 
sifted in with the same in a pulverulent state. This new 
deposite of a different species of edible shell-fish is not 
above three miles below the oyster deposites. 

OCCASION OF THESE EELICS. 

Such is the common aspect of these obviously ancient 
superficial remains of two species of edible shell-fish, as 
resources of human food. Dr. Jackson, our State Geologist, 
has given a description of the same remarkable vestiges, as 
viewed by science. 

He found " the shells (of the oyster) disposed in regular 
layers, perfectly preserved, whitened with the action of the 
weather, but where most exposed to the action of the frost, 
crumbled into a fine shell marl." " The general belief," 
he adds, is " that the shells were heaped up there by the 
ancient Indians, who formerly frequented the spot." This 
gentleman gives no opinion beyond the popular idea, as to 
the causes or manner of these deposites ; but simply 
remarks "that the stratiform position and perfection of 
the shells are an objection, and their comparatively recent 
deposition, and the fact that a diluvial soil is their bed, are 
a support to the common opinion." 

I Letter of Hon. E. Farley. 2 



18 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

Mr. Jackson concludes his observations by a further 
account, descriptive of other rehcs, more remarkable and 
suggestive of facts, found in these deposites, connecting 
them with human agency, saying, " that arrow-heads, ^ bone 
stilettoes, and human bones, have been found in the beds of 
shells near the surface." We may therefore consider the 
fact as well authenticated by the severe tests of scientific 
observation, that human remains, fragments of human art, 
and of weapons of war of bone manufacture, have been ex- 
humed from these deposites. "On Tapin's Island, ^ (Tap- 
lino) in the Bay or Basin, — the lower reservoir of the 
Damariscotta described, a mile or less above the village 
bridge, a half acre of gneiss-rock, covered with yellow loam, 
mixed with a shell detritus, human ^ skeletons have frequent- 
ly been exhumed at a depth of eighteen inches to two feet 
below the surface." 

In the presence of our Geologist, (who is the authority 
for the facts, ) a skeleton was dug up from its burial place 
here. The uniform position is a sitting posture, the knees 
drawn up, facing the east toward the rising sun. " Pieces ^ 
of copper sometimes covered the head of the exhumed 
body ; and one skeleton had a copper knife-blade, set in a 
handle of bone ;" and it was the judgment of our Geologist 
and his medical assistant, that for two centuries, no burial 
had been made in this Island cemetery of an extinct, but 
peculiar people. The facts can leave no doubt, that the 
deposition of shell offal, above described, was the work of 
human hands ; and that the locality of these deposits must 
have been a center of vast populousness, more than two 
centuries ago, when the same features marked this site of 
ancient ruin. Such are the facts, distinguishing the myste- 
rious vestiges of the aboriginal " Ped-coke-gowake." 



^ Jackson's Report, Geology of Maine, vol. 3, p. 57-58. 

2 Jackson's Report, vol. 3, p. 57-58. 

3 Head pieces of copper were angular and breast plates were square. 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 19 

REMAINS OF NEKRANGAN. 

Leaving this remarkable locality, and crossing the penin- 
sula formed by the Sheepscot and Damariscotta waters, 
some fifteen miles south-westerly, we reach the sea near the 
west head of Townsend harbor, at the mouth of the Sheep- 
scot. At this point is the only ingress and egress, by an 
inland passage, to the magnificent harbor below. The 
physical features of this entrance are very peculiar ; which 
in the felicitous, expressive sounds of the aboriginal tongue, 
are described as the " Ne-kran-gan" — our "gate-way." 
Here, enters the great shore trail from Pemaquid, by 
" Winneganne," (meaning carrying place, or portage to the 
harbor,) for the Merrymeeting and Casco travel, of which 
Cape Ne-wagen, (doubtless an English corruption of the 
aboriginal Nekrangan,) forms the western wall. Here is 
another remarkable locality of deep, unexplored, histor- 
ical interest. 

LOCAL FEATURES. 

The ruins near to Ped-coke-gowake of the cataract, at 
the head-waters of the Damariscotta, would seem to have 
been reproduced here, on a more magnificent scale if possi 
ble, within sound of the " thunder of the sea." 

The " Krangan," ^ or gate-way, to the harbor passage, is a 
deep, narrow water-way of bold shores ; and at its point of 
junction with the Sheepscot, expands into an elongated pool 
of cone-like outline, whose base, resting on the over-looking 
slopes of Sawyer's Island, stretches its apex some three or 
four miles south-westerly, into the upper end of Cape Ne- 
wagen Island, making what is now known as Ebenecook 
Harbor. 

The western outlines of this body of water are shaped at 
its base by the shores of " Sweet's Island," swollen into a 
sandy cliff-side ; and then, sweeping back into the usual 

1 Ralle's vocabulary, p. 100, M. H. Coll. vol. 4. 



20 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

margins of coarse, sea-girding granite, letting into view 
Boston and Green Islands. Rocky shores running up into 
the rounded evergreen eminences of " Indian Town" Island, 
shape the left and eastern view, so as to merge each line of 
vision in the head of Ebenecook harbor. 

HUMAN EEMAINS. 

The islands environing this body of water, skirted with 
southern and land-ward slopes and margins falling back in 
gentle declivities, sheltered on every side from bleak winds, 
bear remarkable vestiges of human occupancy antecedent to 
the periods of European colonization on our shores. 

These island-lawns are covered with the remains of a vast 
primitive population, whose bones, blackened, broken and 
decayed, are everywhere diffused in the offal of their sub- 
sistence ; and the soil of their planting grounds, where 
clustered their lodges, is full of the fatness of the ashes of 
the unnumbered and forgotten dead ! 

The margins of each of these land-locking islands, and 
which, in relation to the body of water described, present a 
concentric aspect, have a superficies of shell-soil on an 
under-laying granite, or clay basis, ranging from eight 
inches to many feet, or yards in depth, where the surface 
has been leveled by the process of cultivation ; but wlierc it 
remains in primitive condition, there the shell-offal lies in 
hummocks. The original method of deposition here, would 
seem to have been like that on the margins of the reservoirs 
of the Damariscotta, viz : by successive aggregation of de- 
posits along the water margins, which have fallen back in 
thinner layers, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty 
rods, as the slopes of the sheltering back ground may favor. 

At the base of the watery cone, the chief deposits lie back 
from the shore margins altogether, exhibiting a surface 
rolled into hillocks of more than five feet depth, 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 21 

The entire depositcs are estimated to cover an area of some 
ten acres of soil, consisting of the debris of the bony struct- 
ure of man, beast, fish and fowl, in every stage of decom- 
position, from the dusty outline of crumbling earth-crusted 
bones, to perfect skulls, joints and teeth, in good preserva- 
tion. The remains of the " mya edulis," or common clam, 
constitute the great deposite here; and the entire superin- 
cumbent mass of animal matter has generally reached a 
stage of decay, in which it has become a very productive 
dark colored soil. 

The slopes of Sawyer's Island, broken to the plow some 
thirty years ago for the first time, interspersed with the 
layers of the common clam, (wiiicli here is the prevailing 
deposite,) disclosed patches of oyster shells of large size in a 
good state of preservation. Antlers of the red deer, bones 
of the cod, skulls of the canine, and teeth of large gramin- 
ivorous animals were found, mingled with the teeth, ball 
and socket, skull-bones and sections of the vertebral col- 
umn of the human frame. 

Indeed, it would appear that the ashes of the human dead 
■were everywhere strewn throughout the mass of decomposing 
superficies, which the hoe and the plow-share everywhere 
discover. 

INDICATIONS OF HUMAN AGENCY. 

In each deposite, below as well as on the surface, we find 
decisive indications of the agency of man in the accumula- 
tion of these remains, as well as of the character of the 
remains themselves, in the abundance of various sized rocks, 
from one to three pounds weight disposed throughout the 
mass, with the fragments of charred wood and coal. The 
rocks bear marks of igneous and aqueous action, as if used 
for culinary purposes, in the process of boiling food, some of 
the stones exhibiting marks of volcanic fires, like pumice 
stone. 



22 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

Weapons of war, implements of art — the workmanship of 
rude but skillful hands, have been abundantly found. Brok- 
en from the dykes and veins of green-stone and horn-blend 
injected into the structure of Emerald Island, ^ a bare, bald 
surface of rock, intruded into the entrance of the harbor 
passage, these articles are wrought out of the bed of native 
material in locality there. 

Stone axes, arrow-heads of jasper and flint rock, stone- 
headed spears, a variety of stone and earthen pipes, and an 
ornament of copper, the size and shape of a Spanish quarter, 
with perforations in three several places, have been found. 
Among the pipes, was picked up one, the bowl of which was 
of the size and shape of an ordinary tea-cup — possibly, the 
calumet of the tribe — with walls an inch and one-half 
thick, having a perforated stem ten inches long, all wrought 
out of the solid rock, in a single piece. The material of 
this gigantic pipe was of fine grained sand-stone. Frag- 
ments of pottery, of a coarse iron hue, or dingy, pale burnt 
brick color, ornamented with devices of plants, pricked into 
the fresh moulded clay, are not infrequent. 

Such are the discoveries made in the track of the plow, 
among the offal remains of shell-fish consumed centuries 
ago, and strewn over the slopes and margins of Sawyer's 
Island, and which would appear to have been the central 
and principal site of the lodges of this aboriginal town. 

AETIFICIAL EXCAVATIONS. 

There are remarkable indications of permanency in the 
abode of this extinct race, at this point. A narrow cove 
penetrates Sawyer's Island from the north — dividing it 
nearly tlu'ough to its southern slopes, across the mouth of 
which lies a ruined wall covered with long-grown sea weed. 
Near the head of this cove, an island-shaped, soil-clad rock 

1 Alex. Johnson, Esq. 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 23 

strikes ofT in a lateral spur, from the eastern shore-side. 
The rock is of a very coarse granite. Sunk into the bed of 
this solid rock, with the perfect circles and shape of an iron 
pot, near three feet deep by two feet five inches in diameter, 
are the remains of several perfectly shaped and truly cut 
perforations, just at the line of high-water mark. The 
outlines of two similarly shaped openings, are traced imme- 
diately above the more perfectly excavated ones at the tidal 
margin ; and the whole mass of this rocky bed seems to be 
affected by a process of chemical decomposition, like to 
calorific agency of heated water, so that on its lower side, 
this rock-embedded stone-carved kettle has partially sloughed 
off. 

The indications are entirely in favor of artificial and 
designed construction ; and adverse to the view of their 
being the product of any natural and accidental causes, like 
the ^^pot holes,''^ created by attrition, in the rush and fall of 
water, of geological interest. 

On the opposite western shores of the Sheepscot, at an 
elevation of sixty feet above the sea, two like excavations 
are said to be found, near the mouth of Robinhood's cove, 
but of larger capacity, (one of eight feet deep by four feet 
in diameter, and the other six feet deep by three feet in 
diameter,) ^ and evidently a work of art. 

There would seem to be some relationship between the 
excavations on those opposite shores, the one set, at the 
entrance of the " goose rock passage" to Bath, and the 
other set — at the "Krangan" of the harbor passage to 
Boothbay. 

SUMMARY OF OBSERVATIONS. 

These excavations are obviously the results of artificial 
agencies by all ordinary rules of judgment ; and what pur- 
pose were they to serve ? If a culinary use, where are the 

^ Sewall's Bath, vol. 2, M. H. Coll. p. 1^ . 



24 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

* 

offal remains — the indications of such a use? True, the 
boiling of clams and lobsters, and the flesh of fo"wl and 
fishes, deer and bear may have been done here, and when 
cooked borne away to the lodges below ; or here may have 
been the kitclien of the king, and these excavations sunk 
to serve a public use in the preparation of food for a people 
who, history tells us, " ivould eat nothing raw.'"' ^ Do tliese 
excavations mark favorite camping grounds and resting plac- 
es ? and are they indications of hospitality, in provision 
made for the comfort and convenience of strangers and trav- 
elers at the public expense, from the resources of the Ba 
shaba, who was the great sovereign of the country ? Oi 
were they designed for religious and festive occasions, in the 
bloody rites of druidical worship ? Echo answers what ? 

EXHUMATIONS. 

The margin of " Sweet's Island," back of Spectacle Is- 
land, a low spectacle shaped mass of rocks and sand, rises 
in a sand cliff, over-looking the basin of the harbor passage, 
land-ward, whose face presents a bank of about thirty feet 
high. From the face of this bank, a few feet below the soil- 
surface, the protruding remains of a human body led to the 
discovery of an imbedded skeleton, in a sitting posture, facing 
the rising sun. In the subsequent explorations, a sarcopha- 
gus of double wrappers of birchen bark, enclosing tlie skull 
and frame of a human body, was exhumed. The mass had 
become flattened, from the falling in of the frame, which, 
on being exposed, discovered a winding sheet of delicate 
furs, in several thin wrappers, enclosing the skull and a 
mass of greenish colored bones, and the debris of the human 
frame, and which, under the influence of atmospheric action, 
were speedily converted into an impalpable dust. The re- 
mains of a sash or belt, like a fisherman's comforter, fringed 

* Rosier's Narrative of the savages of Pentacost Harbor. 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 25 

and curiously wrought of plaited hair, loas found with the 
mass, which was also soon dissipated in the air. Stone axe 
blades lay cross-wise the body, with arrow-heads above. A 
further examination disclosed a few feet north, a structure 
of clayey fabric, slightly hardened by igneous action, in a 
vertical position, oval-shaped, some three feet high, the 
locality of whicli was not indicated from the surface soil. 
The blow of an axe, alas, that vandal stroke ! broke in the 
tumulus, and discovered it to be a charnel house, about 
which vestiges of ancient fires were distinctly traceable. 
The facts above narrated have but recently transpired ; and 
were gathered on the spot by an eye-witness of the exhuma- 
tion. 

WHITE MOUNTAIN VIEWS. 

The locality has long borne the traditional name of In 
dian Town, now exclusively applied to designate the most 
central and conspicuous of the group of islands, land-locking 
the body of water, on the margins of whicli these relics of 
an extinct people are disposed ; and whose rock-crowned 
heights command grand views of the White Mountains along 
the valley of the Androscoggin River in the distant north 
west. 

The prospect of these inland mountain views from the 
sea is so peculiar, that from off Monhegan,^ they have ever 
been taken as notable land-marks. In nearly a west north- 
west aspect, a vast gorge, or geological feature in the earth's 
surface, termed " a fault," opens a deep inland view, run- 
ning back by a very gentle elevation from the sea, subtend- 
ing laterally a cone-shaped outline of vision, some miles in 
diameter. In the lino of the axis of this view, against the 

1 Levett's voyage to Cape Ne-wagen, 1623-24. 

The Crystal Hill Is to be seen at the sea side. And there is no ship 
arrives m New England, either to the west so far as Cape Cod, or to the 
east so far as " Monhegan" but they see this Mountain, the first land, if 
the weather be clear. — M. H. Coll. vol. 3, p. 84. 



26 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

horizon of the distant west, fiUing the entire space to the 
very clouds, is projected a rounded mountainous outhne — 
a huge, dark-swollen mass, which reappears above the cloud- 
capt surface, in a symmetrical summit outline of dazzling 
brightness, whose lustre in the beams of an ante-meridional 
sun-light, must certainly eclipse the eye. It is this feature 
which early gave the appropriate descriptive name of the 
" Crystal Mountains." 

These grand outlines, showing in distant relief against the 
western horizon, especially from the eminences of " Sweet's 
Island," as well as from the heights of Indian Town, in a 
favorable state of the weather and atmosphere, add much to 
the romance of the site of this ancient settlement, at the 
" Krangan" of the great aboriginal thoroughfare from the 
east. 

The western slope of Indian Town Island exhibits a 
hiatus, between the elevated back-ground, and the rocky 
bluff of its extreme western verge, injected with a nearly 
right-angular plain of sand of some two or three acres. To 
this spot, tradition has pointed from the earliest European 
recollection, as the site of an Indian garden, wherein grew 
strange and peculiar plants and herbs of reputed medicinal 
virtue, and where snake-root is said still to abound. 

COLONIAL VESTIGES. 

There too, arc vestiges of civilized life, among the barba- 
rian remains of this interesting spot. When the plow-share 
was first driven through the soil of these deposits of decaying 
shell and bones, the point, a fragment of an ancient two- 
edged sword was turned out in the furrow, from its burial 
place in a mass of the bones of a human frame just under 
the surface, where the body would seem to have fallen. 
The hilt, the blade, from which the point would seem to 
bave been broken off while in the hands of him who drew 
and wielded the weapon, have no where been recovered. 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 27 

Near the bones of the body in which the broken and 
blood-rusted sword point was plunged, the same plow-share 
discovered the remains of six other bodies lying promis- 
cuously about. The blade of a long-bitted iron axe, the head 
of one of smooth hard stone, bearing a grooved neck swollen 
into a knob, in place of an eye ; the fragments of an ancient 
saw-plate ; piece of a chain ; with a table knife of ancient 
fasliion and peculiar make, having a right-angular depression 
surmounted with a button shaped point on the upper side of 
the blade, were all turned out together in the furrow, near 
the group of dead men's bones ; and near by, was an earth- 
dug opening, indicative of an early civilized human home. 

These relics, from the broken blade to the knife, have a 
history of their own, a history distinct from that which 
those of barbaric life more remote and extensive, indicate 
here. And it is a history of blood, valor and death, detailing 
a conflict, marking a new and more recent period, shaken 
with the collision of savage and civilized life in a struggle 
for supremacy of the soil, in a contest of races for a home ! 
They mark a later epoch in our history — the epoch of 
the colonial development, when in the scenes of frontier 
life inscribed in the blood written tokens of this fragment 
of a sword, the symbol of civilized life and European 
power, read we the heroism, desperation and success of 
some fond father, some loving husband, in the defense 
and rescue of his wife and children from the death grasp 
of wild and savage men, whose insidious approach had 
surprised his forest-sheltered retreat, but wliose yells of 
savage delight were to be silenced in the dust they were 
made to bite, or choked with their own blood, as it fol- 
lowed the thrusts and cuts of the keen edged steel? — 
Have we here a tale of the horrors of the battle field, where 
the tomahawk and scalping knife wielded a poor defense to 
tlie strokes of the skillful sword-man's battle blade ? 



28 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

SUGGESTIVE FEATURES OF THE REMAINS. 

It is a remarkable and significant fact, that tlie remains 
described have a surface locality, reached by the plow-share, 
and are commingled witli tlie debris of the otfal of a mighty 
horde of eaters, whose bodies seem never to have had sepul- 
ture, but have mouldered away where they fell ! 

Such are the facts, bearing on scenes of a remote antiqui- 
ty, lost to tradition, forgotten of history, and now existing 
in conjecture alone ! But they are eloquent facts. Every 
relic, each ruin, has a tongue ! 

More eloquent they, and louder spoken, than the earth 
covered remains of the supposed sites of Nineveh and Baby- 
lon. Tliey tell us that the head-waters of the Damariscotta 
in the interior, and the lower waters of the Sheepscot, at the 
sea-side, have been points remarkable in human history, as 
centers of vast populousmss to an early race, more than 
commonlij expert in all the arts of barbaric life I 

They assert the existence and agency of a people addicted 
to permanency of abode, a home-loving race, high in the 
scale of savage eminence, and go far to identify the two sites 
described, as homes of one people — resorts of the same 
nation, central points in the same aboriginal state ! 

The facts suggest that a common fate, the same sudden 
and terrible catastrophe, over-swept each hamlet of these 
island homes ! Therefore, the unburied bones of this an- 
cient people are left to bleach, moulder away and mingle 
with the offal of their food, till their lodging places and 
planting grounds have become a golgotha of ghastly re- 
mains ! Surprise, consternation, violence and death are the 
great features of the unsolved problem of the extinction of 
this people and the desolation of their homes ! 

As will have been perceived, the facts detailed relate to 
events and were co-existent with a state of things anterior 
to the advent of the European, or white race, to our shores ; 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 29 

and refer us to the existence here, of a primitive people of 
vast antiquity, and great density, wlio held original posses- 
sion of the soil to which wo have succeeded, where our 
homes are planted, a people eminent among their kind ; 
peculiar in their distinctive characteristics, now utterly ex- 
tinguished from the face of tlio earth, and as early as the 
period of our first settlements here, two centuries or more 
ago ! The facts exhibited, in the traces we have of them, 
on the earth's surface, show them to have been a mighty 
people to have left such permanent vestiges behind them, 
" such foot-prints on the sands of time !" 

These facts demand and admit of a rational solution. 
In solving them, the realization of the vision of lagoo, in 
the Song of Hiawatha, the historical epoch of the myth 
of which we have now reached, may help out the mysteri- 
ous riddle of life and death in our midst. 

Now it was, that o'er the water, to the wondering children 
of our native forests — 

" Came a great canoe with pinions, 

A canoe widi wings came flying, 

Bigger than a grove of pine trees, 

Taller than the tallest tree tops. 

From its mouth he said to greet him, 

Came Way-was-simo, the lightning, 

Came the thunder, An-ne-meekee. 

In it, said he, came a people, 

In the great canoe with pinions, 

Painted white, were all their faces. 

And with hair their chins were covered ! " 

In this wondrous vision, were opened to this aboriginal 
seer — 

" All the secrets of the future, 
Of the distant days that shall be ; 
Were beheld the westward marches 
Of the unknown and crowded nations. 



30 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

In the wood-lands rang their axes ; 
Smoked their towns, in all the valleys. 
Over all the lakes and rivers, 
Rushed their great canoes of thunder ! 
Then a darker, drearier vision 
Passed before him, vague and cloudlike ! 
Saw the remnants of his people 
Sweeping westward, wild and woeful 
Like the cloud-rack of a tempest. 
Like the withered leaves of autumn." 

RUINS ACCOUNTED FOR. 

In tracing the facts we have above explored, in tlicir 
natural localities, up through the dark recesses of the past, 
into the light of historic truth, we must, at the outset, be 
guided by the natural and rational indications to which 
their relations to recorded events and other circumstances 
lead. Entering, and taking our stand, therefore, on the very 
threshold of the colonial epoch, at the opening of the scenes 
of New England history, as proposed in the premises of our 
second proposition, we think we may there gather data for 
their solution, in the historic recollections of the earliest 
voyagers who swept our shores, or in the rumors of that day, 
wafted to us from a remote antiquity, and put on public 
record, as they were caught. 

NORUMBEGUA. 

Amid the fog-banks of more than two centuries and one- 
half, a mist of history, indeterminate in shape and locality, 
ha3 appeared to puzzle the antiquary and appall the historian, 
whose outlines have been preserved in the sounds of aborig- 
inal articulation pronounced " Norumbegua," but more 
simply and truly expressed, as " Arambec," as in the sequel 
will appear. 

Let no one be startled ! There is good evidence that we 
have here but one shape, and that it is no ghost. " Norum- 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 31 

begua," cotcmporaneous with the aboriginal Mavooshen, is 
one of tlie earUest of ancient names on our shores. While 
central Maine has seemed to be its most definite locality, 
yet, from the non-existence of vestiges and remains, tradi- 
tional and topographical evidences, corresponding to the 
prevailing accounts and description, this subject of historical 
speculation has by some, been set down as a fiction of the 
early age in which it became known. Ready, as this meth- 
od of solving the problem presented in the facts, may seem 
to have been, it will be perceived that it is all assumption 
founded in ignorance of facts, still traceable on the face of 
the earth's surface in this region of country ; and would 
appear to have had its origin in the suggestions of French 
authority. Such is a brief summary of the historical atti- 
tude of this celebrated name, which, by general consent, in 
face of the facts and reasoning of De Monts, has latterly 
attached to some undetermined locality on the water banks 
of the Penobscot. 

HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE NAME. 

Sullivan, the historian of Maine, has embodied the most 
perfect accounts in fullest detail, which assure us, " that 
Norumbegua was a province or country lying between Nova 
Scotia on the north and New England on the south, whose 
people were supposed to be an ancient people, — that they 
lived on the Penobscot, near which, as it was imagined, a 
great city once stood, called by the name of Norumbegua." 
Such is one view. Another, in more definite detail, on the 
same authority, locates Norumbegua, so that the "Pemaquid 
and Sheepscot," ^ (then called Chevacovett), made its west- 
ern boundaries, and were within its domain. 

The character of this historic subject seems to have been 
as indeterminate as its locality ; i. e. as to whether it was 

1 Sullivan, p. 270. 



32 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

a town or province. " Some supposed it to be a collection of 
Indian huts ; others, an ancient town." 

The early historian, Ogilby, described Norumbegua to be 
" the ruins of an ancient town, which the natives called 
Arambec, and had deserted." 

We shall cite one more authority, yet more clearly mark- 
ing and defining the locality and character of Norumbegua, 
and then proceed with our investigation. 

Cotemporaneously with the appearance of a town 
1 ^\y' of fifty houses on the w^est bank of the Sagadahock 
at its mouth, defended by a fort, adorned with a 
church, echoing with the hum and clatter of saws and maul, 
in the hands of busy artisans, on the frame of the Virginia of 
Sagadahock, there was published at Doway, the " Universal 
History of the West Indies." This book, of two and a half 
centuries ago, describes Norumbegua " as a city toward the 
north, which is known well enough by reason of a fair town 
and a great river." In a further description, it is affirmed, 
that at the mouth of the river, " is an island very fit for 
fishing ***** and the region that g-oeth along the sea, 
doth ahoimd ^ in fishy This is the fullest, and probably the 
most authentic account we have, — it likely being the summa- 
ry of all that was known about " Norumbegua" at that date. 

With this description, out of the summary of fact and 
fiction, we may pick the truth. It would appear that the 
reminiscences wafting to our day, all the knowledge we have 
of the then unexplored interior, refer to the existence of a 
town and river situated within, or near to the rivers Pema- 
quid and Shcepscot, then as now, well known localities, and 
unless we utterly discard the weight of all historic prepon- 
derance, the early existence of the place, as Province or 
Town in ruins, can be no fiction. 

The name was on the tongue of every native, and in the 

1 Purchas, vol. 4, pp. 1620-1625. 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 33 

ear of every early voyager, so continually and forcibly, that 
it has left an indelible impress on the historic page ! 

But, if of inland location, Norumbegua was never seen 
by early navigators, no one of whom ever ascended beyond 
the mouth of the Penobscot Bay, or the harbor of Townsend, 
prior to the voyage and explorations of George Weymouth, 
in the ship Archangel. 

LOCATION OP NOEUMBEGUA. 

The waifs of history, in concurrence with the pecul- 
iar physical features of our coast and its waters, may aid 
us in determining the locality of this ancient and re- 
nowned spot. Natural and peculiar features and facts, 
yet traceable off our coast, in the notable fishing island of 
Damariscove, we think are rational, as well as natural indi- 
cations, of the entrance to the river's mouth, on whose 
margins the " fair town" of Norumbegua may have stood. 
It is not a little remarkable, that the significant fact should 
have been overlooked in all investigations as to the location 
of the traditional Norumbegua, that the aboriginal term 
used to designate the principal island of an inland group at 
the mouth of a river bearing the same name, should literally 
mean the '■^Jish place, '"^hehig a compound aboriginal word 
" na-maas and covet," pronounced in the English tongue, 
Damariscove ; and the river's mouth, opening inland to the 
north-east of this island, called Damariscotta, meaning the 
river where the fishes ' flock, or rush, bearing in its name 
the great natural feature of its waters in the vast shoals of 
the ale-wive tribe, rushing to their breeding haunts above 
the falls, in the upper reservoir of this remarkable river. 

At the mouth of the Damariscotta, then, we have the 
" island very fit for fishing ;" and " the region that goeth 
along the sea, there, doth abound in fish ;" in all which, it 

1 Illustration of the meaning of aboriginal words. — Hon. William Willis, 
M. H. Coll. vol. 4, p. 190. 

3 



34 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

seems to me, there is a literal correspondence with each of 
the peculiar features drawn in the historical records left us, 
giving the local characteristics, marking the site of the 
ancient Xorumbegua, of aboriginal notoriety and import- 
ance. 

On this hypothesis, based on the fact that Damariscove, or 
Monhegan Island, lying east and Avest of each other, and off 
the mouth of the Damariscotta River — islands remarkable 
for their advantages in fishing, from before the days of the 
colonization of Plymouth and the settlement of Boston, till 
now — each bearing the characteristics of that, which history 
alleged, lay off the mouth of the river, on the margins of 
whose waters the fair town of Norumbegua stood, — or the 
ruins of the deserted Arambec lay — then, may not the pre- 
cise location, marked with every historic feature, in rational 
solution of every remarkable vestige, have an intimate con- 
nection with the enormous oyster offal deposites we have 
described in the remains of these edible bivalves, at the 
head-waters and along the margins of the lower basins of 
Damariscotta River ? 

The traces of vast and ancient populousness — evidence 
recorded on the face of the earth, anterior to the recollec- 
tion even of tradition for more than two centuries, still 
iremarkable there, we have already given in detail. 

We may assume, that no body of water, no arm of the 
■sea, than that shut in at its mouth by the Pemaquid point 
on the east, and by the harbor-environing lands of Booth- 
ibay on the west, now called the Damariscotta River, afforded 
ever, a more ample and ready supply of human food for the 
■subsistence of a permanent and concentrated population, 
in the resources of its ale-wive fisheries and ancient oyster 
beds, — (the members of this distinguished world-renowned 
shell-fish, still surviving in isolation, there amid the deadly 
accumulation of saw-dust and mill offal upon them,) than 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 35 

this remarkable river, at the point where the head-waters of 
the neighboring and oyster-bearing Shcepscot approach so 
near, as to give easy access from one river to the otlier, and 
a natural site for the concentration and permanent abode of 
human beings and the support of life. Between the two 
points at the place designated, was the great Indian trail of 
" Pcd-coke-gowakc, " which," in Walter Philip's day, " the 
natives used to carry their canoes over," and which was 
given as a land mark ^ in his original conveyances. 

EVIDENCE FROM HISTORY. 

That Norumbegua of our aboriginal history was a fair town 
and not a Province, here located, is more fully confirmed, 
from facts recorded, of the observation in the earliest know- 
ledge we have, of the natives resident in this region. These 
facts are gathered from the public reports of the earliest 
navigators along our shores ; and in their collation and 
exhibition, we have at once, not only a solution of the 
problem of the enormous oyster shells and other deposites 
of the refuse of human food we have described in locality, 
but light is shed on the scenes of the narratives of the 
earliest voyagers who sailed in our waters. 

Three years had passed, after the shallop vision of Gos- 

nold's voyage had first greeted European eyes off our strange 

coast, and exhibited to their wondering view this earliest 

sketch of life, in the strange inhabitants of this unknown 

land, when the ship of Capt. George Weymouth, 

1605. the Archangel,^ lay at her moorings in Pentacost 

May 30. harbor, imder an island in the capacious and newly 

discovered haven. 

ORNAMENTS OP COPPER. 

In continuation of the narrative of this voyage. Rosier 

1 Pliilip's Deed to Tappan, L. Commiss. reports. 

2 Belknap. John McKeen, Esq. 



36 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

goes on to say, "here we saw four of their women, who stood 
behind tliem as desirous to see us, but not willing to be seen. 
They were very well formed in proportion of countenance, 
though colored black, low of stature, and fat; bare headed as 
the men, wearing their hair long; they had two little male 
children of a year and a half old as we judged, very fat and 
in good countenancies, which they love tenderly, all naked 
except their legs, which were covered with their leather 
buskins tewed, fastened with straps to a girdle about their 
waists, which they gird very straight, and is decked round 
about with little round pieces of red copper. ^^^ 

PERSONAL ASPECT. 

They were not naturally a beardless race. No hair was 
suffered to grow on their faces ; " but on their heads, very 
long and very black, which those that have wives bind up 
with a leather string in a long, round knot." They were 
civil, merry and thankful — of quick understanding — great 
capacity and ingenious. 

WEAPONS OF BONE. 

This quick-witted people had arrows headed with "the 
long shank bone of the deer, made very sharp, with two 
fangs, in the manner of an harping iron," Other offensive 
projectiles they had, as " darts headed witli the bone of the 
deer," " which," says Rosier, " I darted among the rocks 
and it brake not;" " and which," he adds, "they use very 
cunningly, to kill fish, fowl and beasts." Their bows were 
peculiar, carved out of the witch-hazel and beech, in fashion 
much like those of European make. 

FONDNESS FOR TOBACCO. 

They were fond of tobacco, as well as cultivators of the 
1 Mass. H. Coll. p. 140, series 3d, vol. 8. 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 37 

Virginia weed. At one time, tliey welcomed the ship's 
company on shore, taking them by the hands, and leading 
them to seats by their fires, where thirteen of them sat 
together in social and friendly intercourse. Their tobac- 
co pipe was filled — Avhicli then was the short claw of the 
lobster — and says the narrator, "we drank of their ex- 
cellent tobacco as much as we would, with them ; but we 
saw no great quantity to truck for, it seeming they had not 
much left of old, for they spend a great quantity yearly by 
their continual drinking, and they would sign unto us that 
it was grown yet but a foot above ground, and would be 
aoove a yard high, with a leaf as broad as both their hands." 
The process by which the narcotic luxuries of the tobacco 
plant are described to have been enjoyed in native purity 
and wildness, by drinking, undoubtedly refers to the com- 
mon method of the inhalation of the gases and fumes of 
the consuming weed, as quaffed from the bowl of the pipe 
— a barbarian custom, now thoroughly domesticated, as a 
chief virtue among the enjoyments of civilized life. 

DIRECTION OF THE NATIVE CAPITAL FROM THE SHIP'S 
ANCHORAGE. 

As the ship still lay at anchor in Pentacost harbor, west- 
ward from Pemaquid, the home of a constantly reappearing 
chieftain, whose kinsman was subsequently captured and 
abducted from that home, " by pointing to one part of the 
main, eastward," the natives about the ship gave Commo- 
dore "Weymouth, (whom they called a Bashaba) to under- 
stand there was the place of the Royal residence, the great 
mart of trade, " where their sovereign had plenty of furs 
and much tobacco !" 

Here then, as a center of trade and the abode of their 
sovereign, must have been the Capital of this people. 

COURT COSTUME. 

Only the day before leaving Pentacost harbor, to enter 



38 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

a newly discovered river, swept by strong tides, and enliv- 
ened with fish, some of which were seen "great leaping 
above water," about noon, " two canoes boarded the ship, 
laying still at her anchorage there, coining from the east- 
ward. They bore seven natives, beautified very gallantly 
after their manner, with newly painted faces, very deep, 
some all black — some red, with stripes of excellent blue over 
their upper lips, nose and chin. One of their number ivore 
a ' coronef made very cunningly of a substance like stiff 
hair, colored red — broad, more than a handful in depth. 
Others had the white-feathered skins of some fowl round 
about their heads, and jewels in their ears, and bracelets of 
little round bones." Such was the courtly array of this 
envoy group, in their persons representing the Royal author- 
ity of their sovereign, bearing a message from their king to 
Commodore Weymouth, as his ship lay under Fisherman's 
Island, west of Pemaquid, in Boothbay harbor ; for, con- 
tinues the narrative of the incidents of the voyage, " by 
their speech and signs, they signified that the ' Bashaba,' 
(i. e. their king,) sent them with an invitation, that Capt. 
Weymouth should bring his ' Quiden,'' (as they called it,) 
or ship, up to the Bashaba's house, being as they pointed, 
up on the main, toward the east, from whence they came." 

TREACHERY OF WEYMOUTH. 

But George Weymouth, in violation of all obl'gations, 
natural and moral, in utter subversion of all the rights of 
hospitalities shown him, and of confidence he had won in 
the hearts of these simple nature's children, had converted 
his ship into a prison house, and the subjects of the Basliaba 
into slaves. Two, confiding in the white man's faith, as 
they sped their light and fragile bark about the monster 
ship, were enticed on board, secured below, and their canoes 
" of so good a fashion, made with such excellent and ingen- 
ious art," were disposed on the orlop of the ship's deck, as 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 63 

extraordinary curiosities. Three more, decoyed to the cliff 
side of the harbor-sheltering island, near which the ship rode, 
by tempting food and proposals for trade, with much ado, 
had been seized by their top-nots, and dragged aboard. m 

Five natives of Pemaquid, and one a Sagamore, a resi- 
dent there, all subjects of the Bashaba, were at this moment 
immured in the Archangel's hold, unbeknown to the king's 
envoys, and in violation of the rights of the state, whose 
officers had now presented themselves, in execution of tho 
behests of a courtly hospitality, desiring to lavish its favors 
on the treacherous stranger. " Conscience," it is said, 
" makes cowards of us all." 

Weymouth declined the courtesies of the sovereign, whose 
subjects he had forcibly abducted, and made all haste from 
Pentacost harbor — Pemaquid, the home of the bow men, of 
their outraged chief, Nahanada, being too near, and in sight 
in the east. 

FURTHER IDENTIFICATION OF LOCALITY. 

De Laet ^ wrote, " that four leagues in the direction of 
the coast, to the north of Kennebeck," (a course and dis- 
tance making the harbor of Boothbay,) " there is a bay 
liaving in its bosom a large number of islands." 

The natives of this locality, he adds, arc in some respects 
unlike the other aborigines of Maine. They shave their 
heads to the crown * * * but suffer the hair to grow on the 
back part, confining it in knots, interweaving feathers of 
various plumage. They paint their faces black or red. 
Thjy differ, in that these natives plant corn and beans 
together, on which the vines run up. Besides, these sava- 
ges are said to have permanent abodes. 

Of the natives visiting the Archangel, it was particularly 
noted " that nothing raw would be eaten by them, either 
flesh or fish." 

1 Williamson, vol. 1, p. 486, note. 



40 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

"We have been thus mmute in descriptive detail, to bring 
out certain facts and circumstances, establishing a relation- 
ship between the natives visiting Weymouth's ship, and the 
features and facts of the localities we have heretofore de- 
scribed. In the narratives above extracted, it will at once be 
seen that there are most striking and peculiarly concurring 
circumstances, coincident facts and features, unequivocally 
establishing a connection between the aboriginal people who 
stood on the decks of the Archangel in Pentacost harbor, 
two and one-half centuries ago, with those who were and 
have been dwellers about the head-waters of the Damaris- 
cotta, near whose mouth, west from Pemaquid, Weymouth's 
ship must have laid at anchor. 

On her arrival at Plymouth, in England, Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges, the commandant at that station, took from the 
Archangel three of the captured savages — found them all 
of the same nation, but different families and social condi- 
tion. He says they were from Pemaquid ; ^ gives the names 
of those he had in charge, and drew out of them a full 
account, during a long and intimate acquaintance, " of the 
goodly rivers, stately islands and safe harbors" of their 
homes. 

From the information thus derived, this nobleman dates 
his interest in Maine. 

The misfortunes, the intelligence, the patriotism of these 
aboriginal children of the forests of Pemaquid, seem to have 
laid foundation in England of an interest in this part of the 
New World, which commanded the patronage, the power, 
and the wealth of her highest nobility, from the Lord Chief 
Justice up to the heir to the throne, which was absorbed in 
a series of movements, to secure the soil, develop the resour- 
ces, people the wild forest wastes of the so goodly region of 
Sagadahock; which embraced the home of these five forlorn 

1 M. H. Col. p. 17, vol. 2. 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 41 

captives, of what was esteemed the most successful voyage of 
the Archangel m these waters. The interest thus excited 
developed itself through a period of about a century and 
one half, in vast expenditures of means and influence, to 
found and rear a Royal State, in the wilds of old Lincoln. 

Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the earliest and most reliable his- 
toriographer of Maine, relates " that the coasts were very 
populous, the inhabitants stout and warlike, in the place he 
and his friends first seated in," which was Sagadahock. He 
also tells us " the native government was Monarchical, the 
king bearing the title of Bashaba, whose own chief abode 
was not far ^ from Pemaquid." 

pemaquid's whale fishers. 

Rosier, the chronicler of the Weymouth expedition, tells 
us the Pemaquid captives, whose prison ship the Archangel 
was, on ship board, showed themselves " peaceable, kind 
hearted, generous, truthful and honest." 

They were a people trained to orderly, dignified, and 
respectful deportment, but were a bold and fearless race, who 
were whalemen by profession, often pursuing and capturing 
this mammoth fish in our waters. 

In this perilous sport, an army of boats gathered, in the 
foremost of which sailed their Bashaba, or king, heading 
the flotilla. In this array, they followed the wake of the 
snorting water-monster, till the Royal hand could reach him 
with " a bone made in fashion of an harping iron, fastened 
to a rope, which they make great and strong of the bark of 
trees, and veer out after him, as the stricken fish plunges 
into the watery abyss, in the vain hope of eluding his pursu- 
ers. As he seeks the surface to take breath, in his flight 
from death, the pursuing army of boats gather about the 
opening he makes on emerging from the deep, and shoot the 
king-stricken fish to death." 

1 M. H. Coll. vol. 2, p. G2. 



42 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

DAMARISCOTTA THE SEAT OF ANTE-COLONIAL EMPIRE. 

The facts we have grouped in these details, derived from 
the Pemaquid captives and their captors, must be rehable 
and authentic, as any historical data can well he, and are 
certainly remarkable indications of the origin and peculiar 
character of the ante-colonial dwellers here, and most cer- 
tainly point to the conclusion as a summary of these indica- 
tions, that the Archangel of the Weymouth expedition, 
must have had her anchorage when the five natives visited 
her and were captured and abducted from their homes at 
Pemaquid, west from that point, near the lower waters of 
the Sheepscot, with the head-waters of the Damariscotta, 
(of whose mouth, Pemaquid is the eastern main land mar- 
gin,) bearing north-easterly, distant some fourteen miles, up 
a deep, broad inlet of tide waters, where ships of more than 
one thousand tuns have often swam to the sea ! 

I leave it for common sense to decide, whether these facts 
are not unequivocally suggestive, that up this inlet, above 
Pemaquid, to the eastward of Townsend harbor inland, 
was the abode of their king, whom they called Bashaba, 
to which the royal, crowned and feathered envoys invited 
George Weymouth to bring up his " Quiden," when they 
pointed him up on the main toward the east from whence 
they came ? and which would be the course up the river he 
should steer to reach the Royal abode ? 

But more specific coincidences gather, as we review the 
details given, to shed light on the scenes of our ante-colonial 
days. 

The bone-made darts and javelins, and offensive weapons 
of this manufacture, the knowledge and use of copper 
ornaments and utensils, together witli the use of tobacco in 
such extravagant forms ; the costume and array of their 
persons ; the mode of dressing the hair of their heads ; or- 
namental hair work as a part of the Royal vesture, or court 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 43 

costume of the great officers of state ; the evidences of per- 
manency of abode and of a people " who would eat nothing 
raw;" eminently a people of culinary tastes and habits, 
discoverable in the sites of ancient and eloquent ruin at the 
head-waters of the Damariscotta and on the Sheepscot at 
the entrance of the harbor of Boothbay, connect the people 
who visited the Archangel of Commodore Weymouth's ex- 
pedition in Pentacost harbor, as the dwellers there at that 
date. 

The hone daggers, darts or " stilettoes," and the orna- 
ments of copper, which excited the admiration of our State 
Geologist in his exhumation of the bodies and remains of 
the ancient dead of Damariscotta, from the offal of their 
subsistence there — the little round pieces of perforated cop- 
per, in shape of Spanish coin of the size of a quarter, found 
as relics among the ruins of the Nekrangan, and the hair- 
wrought scarf, the badge of royalty, exhumed with the 
remains of the chieftain's body there dug up, together with 
the presence of the oyster ofHil among the shell deposits 
here, where the oyster does not grow nearer than the head- 
waters of the Damariscotta and Sheepscot above — clearly 
and palpably establish an identity between the barbaric abo- 
riginal inhabitants of the lower waters of the Sheepscot, and 
the upper water settlements of the Damariscotta, together 
with the women and children of the people visiting Wey- 
mouth's ship, and the residents of the island dwellers on 
the Sheepscot, if not also with the savages of Gosnold's 
shallop vision ! 

The offensive weapons of bone manufactured above, and 
the perforated copper ornaments exhumed among the ashes 
of the dead below, with which the savage mother decked 
her savage babes, described by Weymouth, as seen on the 
persons of those who visited his ship at her anchorage in 
Pentacost harbor, are all rationally explained. 



44 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

It can leave no doubt where the anchorage of Weymouth's 
ship was, and from whence the people visiting her came. 

We think we have the best of ^ historic authority in proof 
that the Capital of the native Sovereign of Lincoln was with- 
in the precinct, not far from, but not at Pemaquid. Connect- 
ed with the natural features which we have traced, as mark- 
ing the locality of the historic Xorumbegua, it seems to us 
there is strong presumptive evidence, that the royal abode 
of the Bashaba and Norumbegua were identical ; and that 
the ruins at the head-waters (and the only ruins that would 
be likely to survive an ancient vast aboriginal city, even of 
the material now used by us in building) of the Damaris- 
cotta, near the aboriginal Ped-coke-gowake — mark the seat 
of ancient empire — of which the island city of lodges on 
the Sheepscot, at the "Ne-krangan" of native travel through 
the harbor below, was a sea-board town. Such is the con- 
clusion to which we are led by the facts. 

ABORIGINAL NAMES. 

We have reached the final stage in the investigation, in 
which we find that the analysis of our aborighial names 
afford remarkable confirmation of the view taken. 

The native Mexicans gave an account of the appearance 
of the Spaniards on the coast, by sending to Montezuma " a 
large cloth, on which they painted ^ what they had seen." 

This fact is a type of the action of the native mind, in the 
expression of its perceptions. 

It usually seizes on some leading physical characteristic, 
whose prominent features shape the sounds, articulated 
into the names of persons or places. Therefore, every 
sound entering into a name, in the aboriginal tongue, is 
rounded to fullness with significancy. The name is in fact 

1 See Sir F. Gorges' account and statement. 

2 Sullivan, p. 99. 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 46 

and was designed to be, a painting of the subject to which it 
was apphed, taking strong impression from the moulding of 
the highly figurative cast of the savage conception. 

It was not from letters, but " sonans voce^'' that the 
names we have, were shaped from aboriginal lips, and 
dropped into the ear of history ; and hence it is not out of 
the orthography, but combination of sounds, we must pick 
the meaning. 

Light has been shed on the darkness of aboriginal nomen- 
clature, from the pen of Hon. Wm. Willis, in the valuable 
and laborious research he has made into the meaning of 
Indian terms and the composition of the language, in the 
vocabulary he has gathered. 

SIGNIFICANCY OF NAMES. 

Guided by this light, in applying the principle we have 
developed, as a rule of interpretation, we reach the conclu- 
sion that Norumbegua is a series of words, and 7iot a proper 
name, having in combination the possessive pronoun "N" 
of the native tongue — the adjective " ourim," and the noun 
"pik," and represents three words; the pronoun "N," 
meaning our^ tlie adjective "ourim," good, in the sense of 
delightsome, pleasant, or excellent to the senses ; and the 
noun "pik," meaning a place of residence or home. To- 
gether, the words signify, our excellent residence ; more 
perfectly expressed, as our chief pleasant city ! 

Norumbegua and Arambec, are therefore of the same 
import, as names of the same aboriginal city. Cutting off 
the possessive prefix N as used in the Indian tongue, we 
have left, the suffix " orumbegua," all the sounds of which 
are fully expressed in Arambec, as the great descriptive 
element in the body of the word. 

ARAMBEC. 

Arambec is therefore the true name, meaning chief city 



46 ANCIENT DOxMINIONS OF MAINE. 

or capital — residence of the king, place of the palace, as 
more freely and fully expressed in English ideas. 

Not understanding the composition of their language, as 
the sounds reached the unaccustomed ears of the early voy- 
agers, wlio listened to the calls of native courtesy, to visit 
their sovereign at his capital, as they swept along our shores, 
pointing hi the direction, the savages would say " Norumbe- 
gua ;" and sometimes in the earnestness of the invitation, 
only Arambec, i. e. to our chief city. 

Tiuis out of the ignorance of the narrators, grew up the 
confusion of names, as applied to the designation of their 
principal town, which confusion has left its impress on the 
page of history. 

MENIKUK. 

The ruins distinguishing the island settlement of the sea- 
shore men, have a site, whose true aboriginal name, proba- 
bly, as heard by tlie earliest European settlers on the lower 
waters of the Sheepscot, was written " Mc-ni-kuk," as hand- 
ed down by tradition, it may be from natives themselves. 
In this aboriginal word, every one will at once recognize our 
Ebenecook. 

The patches of oyster shells dispersed in the offal of the 
clam — at Menikuk the main deposite — the manner of bury- 
ing their dead, the use of copper foimd in children's orna- 
ments there, and the vestiges of royal attire wrought in cun- 
ning work of hair, found among the remains of the exhumed 
body of a royal personage, prove that Menikuk and Aram- 
bec were sister cities ; and of the residents in both places, 
were the ancient people visited and outraged by George 
Weymouth in the spring and summer of 1G05. 

The coalescence of the aboriginal sounds, articulated in 
" Menahan," meaning an island, and "Pik," a home, and 
" Auke," a place, so as to express " Menikuk," all will see, 
gives us for the name of the ancient city at the mouth of the 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 47 

Sheepscot, " the island home,''' or tlie place of the island 
home, as more fully expressed. 

How expressive ! how graphic ! how appropriate ! Aram- 
bee, the good ; and Menikuk, the island home! 

RACE INHABITING THESE CITIES. 

At a period so remote from the scenes of the earliest 
European acquaintance with a people which like their forest 
wilds, have vanished in two centuries and a half, leaving on- 
ly the ruins of their homes, and the ashes of their unnum- 
bered dead, to mark the places which knew them, it is diffi- 
cult to identify the race, who, with their Arambec, delightful 
inland capital, had also their Menikuk, or island city on the 
coast. 

Were they of that race called east-land men, known in 
history as the " Wa-wen-nocks," whose very name endows 
them with the highest excellences of humanity — "as a peo- 
ple very ^ brave, fearing nothing"? a people characterized as 
strong, active, healthful and witty ? the immediate subjects 
of the Bashaba, the grand sovereign of the east — the sway 
of whose scepter from its center near Pemaquid, to the 
boundaries of Massachusetts, was all potent? to whose court 
all the subordinate tribes paid savage homage, from the 
banks of Penobscot to the shores of tlie Merrimac? whose 
prowess the fierce Tarratine alone dared to brave ? 

SUCCESSION OF RACES. 

It was a race eminent in many important particulars, in 
the savage wilds of New England ; and tlie indications are 
in favor of the view, that the original stock here, at some 
very remote age, was supplanted, and their favorite places 
usurped by a new and stranger people — a victorious, all con- 
quering people — more elevated in the scale of intellectual 

^ Williamson, vol. 1. 



I 



48 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

gradation, unique in character and polity, who subdued and 
expelled the native race, and reared upon their ruin a 
monarchical state founded in feudal power. 

Unless vestiges of the bloody orgies and superstitious 
horrors of Druidical worship are here, where dark recesses of 
sheltering groves of oak, thick clustering on the margins of 
the water-courses, hill-tops and head-lands of Sagadahock, 
in the aspect of the primeval grandeur and solitudes, fur- 
nished fit temples in which its white-robed priests ever 
celebrated the rites of the Druidical religion, the excavat- 
ed, rock-embedded kettle-bottoms, found at or near Me-ni- 
kuk, are the work of an earlier race than that which greeted 
Gosnold in these waters. These people were a sea-going 
people, skilled in navigating the deep in sailing vessels, 
sloop-rigged craft, and had vessels of copper for culinary 
uses. The people here residing when Weymouth's ship, the 
Archangel, lay in Boothbay harbor, were mariners also, 
and pursued the whale for food, as a pastime. 

These facts indicate, that a foreign and peculiar people 
now occupied the sites of Menikuk and Arambec of Pema- 
quid and iSheepscot. 

During what vast migratory period, in the impulses of 
human existence, could this irruption have taken place ? 
"What epoch of the upheavings and outgoings of humanity, 
do the vast offal deposits of eating thousands described, 
mark in human history ? 

From what shore did this overbearing tide of life set in ? 
Shall wc look to the coasts of Norway ? or to tlie home of 
the Caril), near the fountains of the Gulf stream ? 

They were whalemen, and as experts in the practice of 
European fishers, in all the details of the methods of cap- 
turing this miglity fish by the process of harpooning, wor- 
rying and destroying the ocean monarch, we perceive the 
rudiments of the tastes and habits of life, on the northern 
shores of Europe ; and in the dress of their heads, weapons 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 



49 



of bone, knowledge and use of gold-colored ornaments of 
copper, and their love for tobacco and its culture, we find 
vestiges of the habits, tastes and peculiarities of a southern 
origin. 

Did the vast copper-bearing mountains of the distant 
west, from the sources of Lake Superior, under some mighty 
throes of humanity pour out a stream of life from its teeming 
hordes in wild and tumultuous torrents upon our shores ? 

But this is contrary to the analogies of past experience. 
The great flux of life is so exactly conformed to the centrif- 
ugal forces of the earth's motion — so palpably, that it has 
passed into a historic fact as a great migratory feature, that 
" west-ivard ho! the star of empire holds its way." 

That such an irruption has at some period broken in, 
centering at the heart of Lincoln County, leaving there an 
exotic race from some distant shore, seems more than prob- 
able. In the distant echoings of ages, we seem to catch the 
voices of an earlier day in the cries of a receding people, 
forced from their homes in a concussion of races, calling to 
us and saying. 

They ^ waste us ; ay, like April snow 
In the warm noon, we shrink away ; 
And fast they follow as we go 

Toward the setting day, 
Till they shall fill the land, and we 
Are driven into the western sea. 

The head-waters of the Damariscotta, as we have shown 
on strong circumstantial evidence, being the site of the 
capital of a race of sovereigns — the state residence of the 
great Wa-wennock Bashaba, not only solves the mystery of 
the vast ruins of a mighty race there, but also, the unex- 

1 Drake's Book of the Indians. 



50 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

plained liistorical reminiscences floating tlirough the distant 
past, over the aboriginal scenes of Lincoln County. 

It will be perceived in this view, we have not ventured on 
entirely unsupported conjecture destitute of evidence in 
historic data, or vestiges still traceable on the earth's surface. 
We have the facts. We have traced the ruins. These cir- 
cumstances concur to drive us from the banks of the Penob- 
scot, to the head-waters of the Damariscotta, in search of 
the " Norumbegua," — the ruined Arambcc of ancient fame. 

SUGGESTIVE PEATUKES. 

Our explorations are eminently suggestive in the pregnant 
facts discovered. 

The human remains, mingled with the offal of human 
subsistence, having a surface position, indicate that the hu- 
man bodies were left to rot where they fell, till buried in 
their own decay. 

The circumstances thus marked with melancholy peculiar- 
ity in the history of savage life and times are full of meaning. 

It is a point of heroism with the savage brave, to rescue 
and bury the body of his fallen comrade ; and the remarkable 
non-observance of the custom here, clearly points to sur- 
prise, consternation and death at the hands of unexpected 
'^.nemies, or by visitation of the rod of God, in a pestilence 
;so dire and sweeping, as to give the living no time to bury 
the dead, but sought safety in flight from the scene of the 
kdead and dying. 

BASHABA — HIS POWER AND ENEMIES. 

Both these agencies may have operated. To the east and 
north-east of the dominions of the Bashaba, dwelt the peo- 
ple of the Tarratines,^ enemies of the Bashaba, who had 



1 Gorges. M. H. Soc. vol. 2, p. 61. 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 51 

many. The Wawennocks, ^ his subjects, dwelt on the Sheep- 
scot and Pemaquid ; but the fierce Tarratines occupied and 
held the waters of the Penobscot. 

The Bashaba of the Wawennocks had powerful auxiliary 
subjects, western Sagamores, commanding " some a thou- 
sand — some fifteen hundred bowmen." 

Mavooshen was the name of the territory, wherein was 
the seat of his dominion, which therefore was the aboriginal 
designation of the country watered by the Sheepscot and 
Pemaquid ; and on account of the proximity and facil- 
ities of water passage, the wild and ferocious Tarratine 
made forays into the Bashaba's country. 

Thus the embeis of war were sown between the two 
sections. 

A protracted border war grew up, and ripened into a 
cruel and exterminating conflict, within ten or twelve years 
after Weymouth's visit to Pentacost harbor. Varied success 
marked the progress of the contest, till the Tarratine by 
treachery, secured an opportunity to surprise the Wawen- 
nock sovereign, sacked his capital, and made captive his 
women and escaped.^ Pestilence trod hard on the heels of 
war, till the utter desolation of the Bashaba's dominions 
was completed. Arambec and Menikuk may have been the 
chief towns of the Wawennock race, the ruins of which, in 
ghastly grandeur mock our curiosity and baffle our research, 

1 Me. Hist. Soc. vol. 4, p. 97.— Willis. 

2 " And also for that we have been further given certainly to know, that 
within these late years, there hath by God's visitation roigned a wonderful 
plague, together with many horrible slaughters and murders, committed 
amongst the savage and brutish people there, ( i. e. Sagadahock, ) hereto- 
fore inhabiting, in a manner to the utter destruction, devastation, and 
depopulation of that whole territory, so that there is none left for many 
leagues together." — Extract from second Plymouth Patent, p. 105, Hazard's 
State Papers, vol. 1. King James' renewal and enlargement of Plymouth 
Patent, of Gilbert and Popham's Expedition. 



62 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

though a night of greater age, the shadows of a more hoary 
past gather over the scenes of their desolation. 

I 

ABOEIGINAL NAME OF LINCOLN COUNTY. 

We have reached the epoch of the dawn of the colonial 
existence of " Mavooshen," the aboriginal euphoneous name 
of Lincoln County, described as " a high country, full of 
great woods, goodly groves, and sundry sort of beasts ; 
whose waters teemed with sea-foul, plenty of salmon, lob- 
sters, and other fishes of great bigness;" a region which 
two hundred and fifty years ago, was of surpassing interest 
and attractions, to the European fisher and furrier, as a 
source of speculation. The center of the earliest colonial 
projects from the proximity of its coasts to the waters of the 
best fishing grounds in the newly discovered continent, em- 
bracing a section of the coast-wilds of the new world, early 
remarkable for the attraction of the public interest, as well 
as for its deep bays, safe harbors, and magnificent river 
inlets, indenting its rock-bound and sea-girt shores, as we 
have shown, is no less remarkable now, for its ante-colonial 
historic interest and importance. 

Hoary centuries in mournful succession bend in solemn 
grandeur over the ashes of aboriginal kings and conquerors, 
amid the unburied ruins of a race departed — a nation lost ! 

The silent, simple, unsculptured monuments of life and 
death, in the places of their homes, are the most eloquent 
mementoes of their being. 

The earth's surface still bears the scars of the struggle 
where " the silver cord ivas loosed, and the golden bowl 
2vas broken.''^ 

" With the wan moon o'erhead, 
There stands, as in an awful dream 
The army of the dead ! 
White, as the sea-fog landward bound, 
The spectral camp is seen. 



ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 53 

" No other voice nor sound is there, 
No drum, nor sentry's pace — 
The mist-like banners clasp the air, 
As clouds with clouds embrace ; 
Encamped beside life's rushing stream, 
In fancy's misty light, 
Gigantic shapes and shadows gleam. 
Portentous through the night." 

The historical interest of these scenes among the islands, 
bays, harbors, hills and valleys of this section, runs back of 
those in the historical data of Massachusetts. Tliis very 
antecedence may account for the meager outlines of our 
earliest history, which have survived the ravages of war and 
the tooth of time, the importance of which has been hereto- 
fore overlooked, in the overshadowing greatness of our me- 
tropolitan neighbor. 

But the historic reminiscences of Maine in interest and 
importance, begin to gather and glow over the early dawn 
of her day, with rising effulgence ; and we submit if it is 
too much to assume, that the day is not far distant, when 
the history of New England will have to be re-written, 
beginning with the records of the earth's surface in Maine ; 
and when, in the field of historic observation, as in the con- 
stellation of States, Maine will take her natural position, 
bearing aloft the motto of her escutcheon, "Dirigo — I lead." 



CHAPTER IL 



PERIOD OF DISCOVERY 



The first adventurers in search of a new home within the 
boundaries of these United States, were fugitives from 
scenes of bloody persecution in the horrors of St. Bartholo- 
mew's day, which the revocation of the edict of Nantz 
opened in the heart of Europe. They sought an asylum 
and made a lodgment amid' the wilds of America, allured 
by the hope of freedom to worship God, in the 
sunny south, and on the banks of the rivers of A. D. 
Florida. These were Frenchmen by birth and 1564. 
Protestants in faith. June 30. 

GOSNOLD's voyage to the VIRGINIA OF THE NORTH. 

But the enterprise of commercial adventure, in the mean- 
while, had discovered and opened new sources of wealth in 
the fisheries of the coast of Maine — the ^ "Virginia of the 
northern parts of America." 

An entire generation had passed from the scene of human 
existence and action, and the dawnings of a new one had 
just began to break over the adorning hamlets on the 
banks of the rivers of Florida, when Bartholomew 
Gosnold, as he swept along our shores, in view of its 1602. 
deep bays and magnificent head-lands, from the 
deck of the Concord, " hailed a shallop of ^ European build, 

1 Hackluyt papers, Mass. H. Col. vol. viii, 3d series, p. 73-86. 



56 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

manned with eight savages, the head man of whom was clad 
in a vesture of European fabric and costume. At early 
dawn on Friday, having passed ' Savage Rock/ westward 
bound, (so called because the natives here first showed 
themselves,) land was seen, full of fair trees, the land some- 
what low — certain hummocks or hills lying into the land, — 
and the shore full of white sand and very stony. 

" At noon, anchor was cast, when a barque ^ [bark] shal- 
lop with masts and sails and grapple and a copper 
Lat.43° kettle, came boldly aboard — one of the savages 
wearing a waist-coat and breeches of black serge, 
made sea-fashion — hose and shoes on his feet. The others 
were naked ; loose deer skins cast about their shoulders ; 
and on their waists, seal skins tied fast like Irish diminie 
trousers. Coming near, the savages were hailed from the 
ship, and they hailed back again. 

"In color these people were swart, — their hair long, up- 
tied in a knot behind the head, — tall of stature, — broad and 
grim of visage, — their eye-brows painted white, — their weap- 
ons, bows and arrows." 

A few years before, the largest ship of Gilbert's fleet, 
southward bound, in the latitude of Wiscasset, struck and 
was lost ; and through the recklessness of her company, 
near one hundred souls perished in the waters ^ of Sheepscot 
bay ; and near this scene of disaster without doubt, or " the 
river of the Kennebec," ^ Gosnold's colony could not be 
persuaded to remain, but returning with him to the back 
side of Cape Cod, began their " plantation at the Vine- 
yard."3 

1 Bancroft, vol. 1, p. 91. 

2 Sullivan, p. 272. 

3 Strachey. 



PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 57 



PRING S VOYAGE. 



Martin Pring, under patronage of merchantmen of Bris- 
tol, with two vessels following the track of Gosnold, 
" found good anchorage among the islands in the 1603. 
Penobscot or Pemaquid Bay, — ^ Monhegan and Pem- 
aquid being in sight." He examined more in detail, the 
bays, harbors and rivers of our coast, carrying back a glow- 
ing account to England, of " the very goodly groves and 
woods and sundry sorts of beasts," which fairly started the 
energies of the old world into vigorous enterprises for set- 
tling the new, by colonizing her children there, lest some 
other people should forestall the purposes of England in this 
particular. Mons. de Monts, a protestant, but a Frenchman, 
with his fragments of a colony planted on the island St. 
Croix — where "hoary snow farther being come caught and 
held them fast till spring," had entered the Kennebec, reared 
a cross, and planted the arms of his sovereign. 

The enthusiasm and interest of England being now thor- 
oughly aroused by the repeated glowing pictures of 
our wild and distant shores, — " distance lending en- 1G05. 
chantment to the view," — drawn by every new voy- 
ager on his return, stimulated the public mind to new zeal 
and enterprise. 

Weymouth's voyage. 

Noblemen enlisted both fortune and influence in efforts to 
explore and secure to the enjoyment of their country the 
El Dorado of the west. Under the patronage of Lord 
Arundel, a voyage of deep interest and most important 
results to the Geographer and Historian was pro- 
jected. Two and one half centuries have elapsed Mar. 5, 

I Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 21. 



68 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

10 A. M. since George Weymouth set sail at Ratcliff in the 
Archangel ^ for our shores.^ 
Running close by the wind, one month after his de})arture 
from England, urged by necessities of wood and 
May 6. water, to make tlie nearest land, in the forenoon 
he "came to a rippling" ahead of the ship — " a 
breach of water," caused by a fall or by some meeting of 
currents, " the weather being very fair, and a small gale of 
wind" — soundings were made, but no bottom with an hund- 
red fathoms. 

Alarmed at a sudden change in the aspect of the water, 
soundings again made, gave but five fathom, and 
May 13. no land in sight. A man at mast-head, soon how- 
ever " descried a whitish sandy cliff, bearing W. S. 
"W. with many breaches of the sea near to land" — and be- 
coming embayed with shoals on a most uncertain ground, 
" where was found a great store of most excellent cod fish 
and many whales were seen," the ship stood off all night, 
and the next day the wind S. S. W. and W. S. W. 

Thus Weymouth, when he first made land and became 
embayed among shoals and sand, escaped the perils of Cape 
Cod. 

MONHEGAN DISCOVERED. 

It was on Friday, during evening twilight, that land was 

again descried, bearing N. N. E. in the midst of a 
May 17. gale of wind and raging sea, which forbade an 

approach to the unknown coast. The ship was 
put about and stood off till two o'clock on the morning of 

Saturday, wlien she stood in toward what appeared 
May 18. " a mean ^ high land," but was found to be an 

" island, six miles in compass, of a thousand acres" 



1 John McKeen, Esq. Belknap. 

2 JNIass. Ilist. Col. 3d series, vol. viii. 

3 Some high land of the main. — Hubbard, p. 12. 



PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 59 

—oblong in shape, as fair a land to fall in with as could be 
desired— free from sands, rocks and shoals — of bold shore 
and good land fall— well stocked with sea-fowl, and the waters 
with large cod and haddock. 

At noon, a league from the sliore on the north side of the 
island, whose margins were fringed with the gooseberry, 
strawberry, and wild rose, Weymouth anchored his ship. 
A boat's crew landed for wood and water, and discovered 
vestiges of human life in the remains of a recent fire. The 
main land from their anchorage here was seen trending from 
the W. S. W. to the E. N. E. 

OBSERVATIONS, COURSES, AND DISTANCE OF THE ARCHANGEL 
IN SAILING IN TO THE MAIN. 

Says the chronicler of this voyage, — " from hence we 
might discern the main land from the west-south-west to the 
east-north-east, and a great way ( as it then seemed and we 
after found it ) up into the main we might discern very high 
mountains though the main seemed but low land." 

The text implies a distant inland prospect of mountain 
views, as land-marks, which " mighr be discerned from the 
anchorage, under what is conceded to be Monhegan Island, 
though it is not positive that they could be fully seen, as 
they were only discerned, which implies dimness, as well as 
distance, of vision ; and the White Mountains, showing in 
their magnificent outlines, terminating the view in the hori- 
zon of the distant west, along the valley of the Androscog- 
gin, would seem to answer the object of the narrator as well 
as the description he gives, which was, so to shade the local- 
ity of the exploration and discoveries as to lead foreign 
voyagers, who might follow, astray. " The ship riding too 
open and exposed to the sea and winds weighed 
anchor about twelve o'clock" (it being Sunday) May 19. 
and made sail for the main,—" coming along to the 
other islands more adjoining to the main and in the road 



60 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

directly with the mountains, about three leagues from the first 
Island where we had anchored " — writes Rosier. Having run 
in about tlu-ee leagues, which brought the Archangel near 
to islands more adjoining to the main" she came to in the 
offing and a boat was sent under command of Thomas 
Cam the mate, to discover and sound out a passage up 
between the islands. The Arch-angel lay off and on till the 
boat should give " a tolten to " weffe in the ship if a con- 
venient harbor were found" — which, in the language of the 
narrator, " it pleased God to send us, far beyond our expec- 
tation, in a most safe berth, defended from all winds, in an 
excellent depth of water for ships of any burden, in six, seven, 
eight, nine, and ten fathom, upon a clay ooze, very tough, and 
which was named Pentacost Harbor." 

VESTIGES OP HUMAN LIFE. 

By four o'clock the ship was anchored and well moored 
under an island, on which, as on St. George,^ the first-dis- 
covered and so named by them, now called Monhegan, it was 
found where a fire had been made ; and near by " the shells of 
very great eggs, bigger than goose eggs" — together with the 
bones of fishes and beasts. These evidences of the presence of 
human existence excited the curiosity of the ship's company ; 
and having discovered a place on the island suitable to build 
their shallop and fill their water, every way to their wishes, 
in their search they " espied cranes stalking on the shore 
of a little island adjoyning where it was afterward found this 
bird had its haunt, to breed and rear its young "; and to 
this day one of the islands off Boothbay Harbor is known 
to every fisherman as well as to tradition as " Heron Island," 
derived undoubtedly from the facts here given. 

The material for the new boat was now taken on shore, 
and her frame set up, while the ship's crew digged for water, 

1 Gilbert and Popham's voyage. 



PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 61 

and finding a spring, inserted an empty cask to 

make it well up, and in their digging found excel- May 20. 

lent clay for brick and tile." 

OCCUPATION OF SHIP's COMPANY. 

Yards and spars for the ship's use were cut from the neigh- 
boring forest by some — the shallop hastened forward by 
others, — and great lobsters, rock-fish, and plaice were fished, 
— " all the fish being well-fed, fat, and sweet to the taste." 

The soil of this island was broken with the spade and 
hoe for the first time ; and various garden seeds 
committed to the virgin earth, " which in sixteen May 22. 
days grew eight inches," in wha,t was but the crust 
and much inferior to the mould of the main land. 

Their wood and watering finished, " fourteen musketeers 
and Pike men embarked to explore the neighbor- 
ing islands in the harbor ; landed on two of them May 24. 
and marched over them ; one of which was a mile 
broad and four or five miles in compass, " — undoubtedly 
" Squirrel Island and Cape Ne-wagen " — the Nekrangan of 
the aborigines. 

" To-day the new-built shallop was launched, and a cross 
set up on the shore-side among the rocks," in 
accordance with the custom of the age, in marking May 29. 
new-discovered lands, and particularly with Com- 
modore Weymouth's policy, who " set up crosses ^ in several 
places, marking his explorations here." 

FIRST VIEW OF THE NATIVES. 

The ship well moored, with fourteen men of her crew, 
was left at her anchorage, while Commodore Wey- 
mouth, with thirteen men, explored the new-dis- May 30. 
covered harbor and its several approaches, finding 

1 Holmes's Annals, p. 150. Williamson, p. 192, vol. i. note. 



62 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

four entrances for ship passage and good anchorage in the 
sounds between its land-locking islands. 

He then departed on an expedition inland, in his ship's 
boat. After he had gone from the ship, 5 o'clock, at night- 
fall, those remaining on ship-board espied three canoes 
coming toward the ship ; which touched and landing on an 
island opposite the ship's anchorage quickly made a fire, 
about which the savage boat's crew stood beholding her in 
■wonder ; as if in vision they had 

" Seen the great canoe with pinions, 
Seen the people with white faces, 
Seen the coming of the bearded 
People of the wooden vessel." 

The ship's company with their hands and hats signalized 
a friendly mission, " weffing unto them to come unto us," 
says the narrator, " because we had not seen any of the 
people yet." 

Then a canoe with three men put off for the ship, and when 
near to her, one of them " spake in his language, very loud 
and very boldly," as if he would know " why she was 
here ? " and pointing his oar toward the sea, motioned, " that 
she should be gone." 

An exhibition of knives and their use, combs and glasses, 
on board the ship, drew the " canoe close aboard," to the 
evident delight of her company, who gladly received the 
bracelets, rings, and peacocks' feathers, with which they 
adorned " their hair and tobacco pipes " and then returned to 
their savage companions on shore. 

DESCRIPTION OF THE NATIVES. 

"With bodies painted black, — their faces, some red, some 
black, and some blue, — " not very tall nor big" — they were 
a symmetrical and comely people, clothed with beaver and 
deer skin mantles, fastened at their shoulders, hanging to 



PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 63 

their knees, and most without sleeves — shod with leather 
buskins, and their nakedness covered witli a beaver flap. 
They wore no beard ; while the hair on the top of the head, 
" very long and very black," was tied up from behind into a 
long knot. Of quick perception and good understanding, 
they exhibited a courteous demeanor, mingled with kindness 
and gratitude » 

" Their canoes are made without any iron, of the bark of 
a birch tree, strengthened within with ribs and hoops of 
wood," 

Very early the canoe came along side, and the three 
natives were easily induced to come on board the 
ship and pass below, where they freely ate of the May 31. 
ship's provisions, but of nothing raw. The 
kettles, the armor, all excited their wonder ; and at the 
report of fire-arms the savages fell flat on their faces, exhibit- 
ing the greatest terror. It was given them to understand 
that the great object of the ship's visit to their shores was 
the exchange of knives &c. for beaver skins and furs ; on 
learning which, with evident satisfaction, all departed. 

DISCOVERY OF A RIVER. 

It was now ten o'clock, and to the surprise of the ship's com- 
pany, within twenty-four hours of her departure, the shallop 
was descried on her return ; and as she nearcd the ship, in 
token of her good news and success, she came " shooting 
volleys of shot ; " and when within musket range, adds the 
narrator, " the shallop's company gave us a volley and hailed 
lis ; then we in the ship gave them a great piece and hailed 
them ; and so soon as we espied them we certainly conjectur- 
ed our captain had found some unexpected harbor, further up 
toward the main, to bring the ship into, or some river." 

Aboriginal Boat. — The following description will present a good Idea 
of the canoe of the aboriginal construction and use : 

" Of the birch bark the savages make delicate canoes, so light that two 



64 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

Here wc have in the text a decisive indication that Captain 
Weymouth, in his explorations of the harbor, had made an 
inland egress from the harbor northward, through which 
he had passed up into the main ; and following the tides, 
had unexpectedly fallen on his new discoveries, in the course 
of this passage. Tlie north-west head of Boothbay Harbor 
terminates in such a passage by a deep, narrow gorge, in 
the native language called a gate-way, as part of the trail 
from the east to tlie Kennebec, sufficiently deep to swim any 
ship — through which the ocean-tides rush up the broad and 
deep Sheepscot channel into Wiscasset Bay, and around the 
head of Westport through Monseag, and around Hocko- 
mock head into the Sagadahock opposite the city of Bath, 
the course from the harbor trending constantly to the west. 

To resume the narrative, the chronicler adds, '* our captain 
had in this small time discovered up a great river, trending 
alongst into the main about forty miles. * * * For by 
the length, breadth, depth, and strong flood, imagining it to 
run far up into the land, he with speed returned, intending 
to flank his light horse-men for arrows, &c. " leaving at the 
point on the river's banks where he had debarked, in a trail 

men will transport one of Ihem over land, and it will carry ten or twelve 
men by water. Sometimes canoes are made of pine trees, which, before 
the natives became acquainted with edge tools, they burned hollow, scrap- 
ing them smooth with clam and oyster shells, trimming their outsides with 
stone hatchets. These boats are not above a foot and a half or two wide, 
and twenty foot long. Thin birchen rinds, close ribbed on the inside with 
broad tliin hoops, like hoops of a tub, very light, are the material for the 
other kind of canoes. 

" In these cockling fly-boats, wherein an Englishman can scarce sit with- 
out a fearful tottering, the natives will venture to sea where an English 
shallop dare not bare a knot of sail, scudding over the overgrown waves as 
fast as a wmd-driven ship, being driven by their paddles, being much like 
battledoors ; and if a cross wave turn her keel upside down, they by swim- 
minnf free her, and scramble into her again." Yoiint/'s Chronicle, see note-, 
p. 135. 



PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 65 

of human footsteps, a knife, a pipe, and a broach, all which, 
on his return, he found had been taken away." 

Mutual congratulation was exchanged on the one hand 
for unexpected and successful discoveries ; and on the other, 
" in meeting kind civilities in a people where any spark of 
humanity was so little expected." 

NATIVE TRADE. 

The forenoon of the first of June was spent in trade on 
shore, where eight and twenty natives appeared, 
" and for knives, glasses, combs, and other trifles, June 1. 
we had forty good beaver skins, otter skins, sables, 
and other small skins which we know not how to call." 
The trade ended. 

The natives now assured of the pacific disposition of their 
strange visitors, cast off reserve, and became free and fear- 
less, accompanied the fishermen who drew the net, and won- 
dered at the result; admired the process of writing, and 
would " fetch fish and fruit bushes, and stand by me to see 
me write their names," says the chronicler of the voyage. 

A source of the greatest wonder was the galvanic power 
of the point of the captain's sword electrified by the touch 
of a loadstone, " which would take up a knife and hold it 
fast when they plucked it away, or make it turn when laid 
on a block of wood, and lift a needle." 

DEPORTMENT OF THE NATIVES. 

Two were invited by the captain to sup with him and 
attend evening service on board, who behaved themselves 
with great decorum ; " but desired pease to carry on shore 
to their women," which were given them in " pewter dishes," 
" all of which were carefully brought again." 

At their departure, some of the ship's company were in- 
duced to visit those on shore, where they found deer skins 
spread by the fire, for them to be seated on. To their guests 

5 



66 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

they offered tobacco, " which was excellent, being the simple 
leaf, strong, and of sweet taste." 

Rosier took from one of their canoes, one of their bows 
and arrows, and drew it, finding it strong, able to carry an 
arrow five or six score strongly. One of the natives also 
took up a bow and drew it, and it was observed that he drew 
his bow after the manner of the English, and " not like the 
Indians. ^^ 

Their arrows were headed with the long shank bone of the 
deer, made very sharp, with two fangs in the manner of an 
harping iron. They likewise had darts headed with like 
bone, " one of which I darted among the rocks, and it brake 

not." 

On the return of the party to the ships, Owen Griffin was 
left on shore, while three of the savages slept on board, who 
lodged in an old sail on the orlop, and were kindly treated ; 
" and because they much feared our dogs," says the writer, 
" these were tied up whensoever any of them came on board." 
On the Sabbath, five or six canoes hovered about the ships ; 
but at a signal that they should depart till the next rising 
sun, all left, — some in their canoes, coursing about the island, 
and others directly toward the main. 

On Monday, early, the natives came about the ship, by 
signs earnestly desiring that we would go with them 
June 3. to the main, where they had furs and tobacco for 
traffic. 

They would {bp pointing to one part of the main eastivard) 
signify that their Bashaba, i. e. King, " there had great plen- 
ty of furs and much tobacco." Wherefore our captain man- 

SPEED OF NATIVE CANOE. 

ned the " light-horse man" with as many men as he well could, 
fifteen rowers in all. This we noted as we went along, that 
their canoe with three oars would at will go ahead of us and 
about us, when we rowed with eight oars strong. 



PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 67 



SUSPICIONS OF TREACHERY. 



When we came " near the ■poinV where we saw their fires, 
and intended to land, the guiding canoe sped away to their 
fellows on shore, after carefully and frequently having num- 
bered the ship's company. 

This circumstance aroused suspicions of treachery in the 
mind of Weymouth, who determined not to follow, unless 
" he who at their first sight of them seemed to be of most 
respect among them — the kinsman of Nalianada, a chief — 
and being then in the canoe, would stay as a pawn." 

But when the canoe came up, " he utterly refused ; but 
would leave a young savage, in whose place Griffin was sent 
in the canoe while the captain's boat lay hulling a little 
off." 

griffin's story. 

Griffin returned, and reported two hundred and eighty- 
three savages assembled, " every one with his bow and arrow, 
their dogs and tamed wolves," with nothing at all to ex- 
change, but seeming desirous to draw the company '-'■ further 
vp into a little nook of a river, for their furs as they pretend- 
ed," — called " Little River" to this day, and which longitudi- 
nally divides the point of Linikin's neck. 

The ship's company took cod and haddock with hooks by 
the ship's side this day, and lobsters very great, 
which they had not before tried to do at her anchor- June 4. 
age off this island, where they had found " good 
wholesome, clear water in a great empty cask," which was 
left there as a well, and " a fit place, convenient to set to- 
gether a pinnace which had been brought in pieces out of 
England." Great muscles abounded among the rocks ; and 
in some of them many small pearls ; and in one of them 
" was fourteen pearls, whereof was one of pretty bigness and 
orient." 



68 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

NATIVES KIDNAPPED. 

It was now resolved to capture some of the natives and 
leave Pentacost Harbor, whose confidence having been se- 
cured, would make them an easy prey. 

Two canoes soon boarded the ship, containing three natives 
each ; of whom, two went below to the fire, the others re- 
mained in their canoes about the ship, but could not be al- 
lured on board. A plate of pease was tendered to those still 
in the canoes, which was received by them, and with which 
they hasted to an adjacent island, there to eat them. Having 
finished the repast, one of the savages, young, comely and 
brisk, returned with the can to the ship ; and joined his com- 
rades on board below. The small ship's boat was now man- 
ned with seven or eight men, and dispatched to the shore, 
as if for traffic. As the boat's crew landed, one of the sav- 
ages " withdrew into the wood," but the other two met the 
party at the shore-side and received another can of pease, 
with whom the surprising party " went up the clift to their 
fires," and sat with them by it. They then suddenly seized 
on the savage group ; and it was as much as five or six of the 
sailors could do to get them into the light horseman, for they 
were strong and so naked that the best hold was by the long 
hair on the top of their heads. 

" Thus," says the chronicler of the voyage, " we shipped 
five savages, two canoes with all their bows and arrows." 

DESCRIPTION AND EXPLORATION OP THE HARBOR. 

The harbor was thoroughly explored this day ; and " the 
Captain diligently searched the moutli of the har- 

June 8. bor, and about the rocks ivhich shew themselves at 
all times, and are an excellent breach of the water, 

so as no sea can come in to offend the harbor" — a harbor 

that can be entered "most securely in water enough hj four 

several passages." 



PERIOD OP DISCOVERY. 69 

Soon after shipping the captured natives, who had come 
from their iiome at Femaquid to visit the ship, as she lay in 
her anchorage still, about one o'clock, " came from the east- 
ward two canoes aboard us," says Rosier, " wherein was he 
that refused to stay with us for a pawn ; and with him six 
other savages which we had not seen before, who had beauti- 
fied themselves after their manner very gallantly with newly 
painted faces, very deep, some all black, some red, with stripes 
of excellent blue over their upper lips, nose, and chin. One 
of them wore a coronet about his head, made very cunningly, 
of a substance like stiff-hair colored red, broad and more 
than a handful in depth." 

This costume indicated the royal relationship of the wear- 
er, the hair work being a part of the royal vesture, which the 
savage wearer so much esteemed that nothing could induce 
him to part with it. " Others wore the white feathered skins 
of some fowl, round about their heads, jewels in their ears, 
and bracelets of little white round bone." 

This body of savages seem to have been a deputation ac- 
companying the Royal Ambassador, sent from the Bashaba. 
to Captain Weymouth, desiring, says Rosier, " we Avould 
bring up our ship," or Quiden, as they call it, to his house, 
being, as they pointed, upon the main, towards the east from 
whence they came. 

But Weymouth declined the Royal courtesy, and turned 
from the place of the Royal abode, and weighing 
anchor for the first time since he entered Penta- June 11. 
cost Harbor, made all sail, and with the kidnapped 
subjects of the Bashaba under hatches, residents of Fema- 
quid, the kinsman of one of whom the Royal messenger seems 
to have been, steered out of the harbor " and passed up into 
the newly discovered river about six and twenty miles." 

Before leaving the harbor, a boat's crew landed on one of 
the islands of this harbor anchorage, " having a small sandj 



70 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

cove for small barks to ride in, and hard by the shore a pond 
of fresh water, which flowed over the banks, somewhat 
overgrown with little shrub trees, fed by a strong run." ^ 

MAGNIFICENCE OF THE SAGADAHOCK. 

All were struck with the beauty of its head-lands and 
grandeur of aspect, as the ship winged her way up this 
river " for the river itself, as it runneth up into the maine 
very nigh forty miles toward the great mountains, beareth 
in breadth a mile, sometimes threc-qviarters, and half a mile 
at the narrowest, when you shall never have under four 
and five fathoms water hard by the shore, and on both sides 
every half mile very gallant coves." After a sail of about 
twenty-six miles, the ship reached her river anchorage. 

APPEAEANCE OF THE SITE OF THE CITY OF BATH. 

With the light horseman, or gig, the Captain, with seven- 
teen men, left the Archangel riding at her anchor- 
June 12. age, opposite the " Gut," or the entrance to the 
inland " passage to Boothbay Harbor, from the 
Sagadahock, and rowed up the river to the " cod thereof," 
where all landed but six to guard the boat. Ten of them, 
with a boy to carry the powder and match,^ some armed, 
marched up into the country toward the high mountains 
descried at their first falling in with land, and which had 
seemed very near, within a league, but after travelling a 

1 In Prince's N. E. Chronology, it is asserted " that Captain Weymouth 
Jirst entered the Pemaquid" (which he must necessarily have done, if 
he approached Boothbay Harbor, by T.iniken's neck sound) " and then sail- 
ed up the Sagadahock," the harbor lying about midway between the two 
rivers — and, it is added, that Weymouth brought from these rivei's five na- 
tives, of whom were " Manida, Sketwarroes and Tisquantum." N. E. Chron. 
p. 15. 

- The fire-arms were the old fashioned match-lock musket ; the flint-lock 
and modern percussion being unknown. 



PERIOD OP DISCOVERY. 71 

league and a mile they passed only three hills. In their 
march, the party " passed over very good ground, pleasant 
and fertile, fit for pasture, for the space of some three miles, 
having but little wood, and that oak, like stands left in the 
pastures of England, good and great, fit timber for any 
use." 

" And surely it did all resemble a stately park, whereiu 
appear some old trees with high withered tops, and other 
flourishing with living green boughs. Upon the hills grew 
notable high timber trees, masts for ships of four hundred 
ton." Such was the aboriginal forest aspect of the peninsula, 
on which the present city of Bath is located, when its land- 
scape in native wildncss was first opened to the admiring 
gaze of the adventurous white man, whose foot for the first 
time trod its virgin soil, and sought rural delights amid its 
clusters of mighty pasture oaks. How grand and refreshing 
must have been the view, as the ship's boats rowed up that 
magnificent reach on the margins of which the city stands ! 

REAPPEARANCE. OF THE BASHABA'S MESSENGERS. 

On return of this river exploring party, in rowing back 
to their ship, " they espied a canoe coming from the further 
part of the cod of the river eastward, (i. e. from the harbor 
they had just left, by the gut ^ ) which" says the narrator, 
" hasted to us, wherein with two others was he who refused 
to stay for a pawn." 

Note. — If Capt. Weymouth's Pentacost harbor be identical -with Booth- 
bay, near and in sight from Pemaquid, north-easterly, where lived his cap- 
tured natives, the Archangel may have followed the flood tide, leaving the 
harbor by its inland passage, bearing west up the Sheepscot, by way of 
Wiscasset to the Sagadahock, entering the Kennebec opposite Bath. By 
the inland route, it would be from twelve to fourteen miles to AViscaaset, 
and twelve miles from thence to her anchorage, near where the city of Bath 
now stands, making about twenty-six miles. 
1 Is this tke ancient by-river Sasana ? 



72 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

Discovery of the treachery of tlieir white visitors had now 
heen made ; and the ver}'- day after the Archangel had left 
the harbor below, the savage Prince, who had become known 
by his authority, dignity and cautious bearing, costume and 
frequent appearance in behalf of his Sovereign, at the ship, 
with his people in the harbor, had followed her to the new an- 
chorage in the river, from the east ; and was now just emerg- 
ing into sight between the opening head-lands of bold shores, 
where the Kennebec yawns to swallow in the Sheepscot tide 
waters opposite Bath. With the haste and earnestness of 
affection and solicitude, these savages endeavored to secure 
one of the ship's company as an hostage for the safety of his 
brother or kinsman, now a prisoner in that ship, having been 
of the number of those abducted, in the harbor below, belong- 
ing to Pemaquid, and immured in the Archangel's hold. 

EXPLORATIONS OF THE RIVER. 

A company, well armed and provided, again embarked in 
the small boat, and went up from the ship to that 

June 13. part of the river ivhich trended westivard into the 
main, to search that, and carried with them a cross 

to erect at that point, which they left on shore till their 

return, where it was set up in like manner as the former had 

been, on the island. 

ARCHANGEL TOWED TO THE SEA. 

Having fallen in with so bold a coast, found so excellent 
and secure a harbor, " discovered a river above report nota- 
ble," up which he rowed from his anchorage, by estimation, 
twenty miles, making less than three-score miles from the 
place of his ship's riding' in the harbor, observing — " that 
from each bank of this river are divers branching streams 
into the main, and that here was great store of fish, some 
great, leaping above water, which were judged to be salmon" 
— Weymouth made all expedition for his return to England. 



PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 73 

Before the gray dawn of morning had broken over the 
head-lands of Arrowsic, with the tide in his favor, 
and two boats ahead, the Archangel was unmoored, June 14. 
and towed down the Sagadahock, and anchored be- 
fore noon. 

The remainder of the day was consumed in sounding out 
the entrance to this river from the sea. On Saturday, with 
a breeze off land, anchor was once more weighed, and the 
ship ran back to the harbor to her watering place, when the 
Captain, upon a rock in the midst of the harbor, observed 
the height, latitude, and variation upon his nautical instru- 
ments, and found the Lat. 43 deg. 20 min., and on 
Sunday, the wind fair, the ship finally put to sea, June 16. 
homeward bound for England. 

IDENTIFICATION OF THE HARBOR. 

Such is a sketch of the account of Rosier, the chronicler 
of this important voyage. "We have been thus full in noting 
all the important facts in detail, as it is believed modern 
received history is utterly at fault and founded on mere as- 
sumption, in reference to the location of the scene of Wey- 
mouth's explorations. 

Strachey, a cotemporaneous writer, has thrown much 
light on this expedition, in giving us the aboriginal names 
of the rivers entered and explored by Weymouth, which 
from motives of state policy were withheld in Rosier. 
Strachey expressly fixes the localities, saying of Wey- 
mouth, that among other discoveries made, was that of the 
■' little river of Pemaquid, and that most excellent and 
beneficial river Sagadahock — up which he searched for 
sixty miles." ^ 

In the account transcribed are sketched many physical 
features which will ever mark the island under whicli, and 

1 M. II. C. Yol. 3, p. 287. Mass. II. C. vol. 5, 2d series, p. 12. 



74 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

the harbor in which Weymouth moored his storm tossed 
ship. No course being given in the text, as to tlieir show- 
ing, or any other indication, but the fact that there were 
" very high mountains, very far up into the main — discern- 
ablo from the anchorage under Monhegan Island" — tlie legit- 
imate inference is that Weymouth stood in for the main in 
the line of vision of the summit of Mount Washington, in 
the White Mountain group, discernable in the distant west 
and north ; and the islands about three leagues distant, 
adjoining to the main, in the " road directly to these moun- 
tains^^'' must have been some of the inner islands of the 
Damariscove group which land-lock Boothbay Harbor. So 
the course of Weymouth from his anchorage under Monhe- 
gan was westward and not eastward. It would seem to 
one familiar with the localities, that the ship passed into the 
harbor, by Pemaquid point, through the sound, between 
Liniken's Neck and Fisherman's Island ; and then coming 
too, anchored between it and Squirrel Island. The northern 
extremity of Fisherman's Island (ancient Ilippocras ?) is 
a rounded swell or cliff shore, under which, on the west 
side, a cove makes in, convenient for landing to wood and 
water. A cable's length from the shore of this island, and 
off the cove on the harbor side, is good fishing ground by 
the side of the ship where she lay, a circumstance peculiar 
in itself to the ivaters on the harbor side of this island, and 
where doubtless the Archangel lay at anchor. Entering at 
the point of Liniken's Neck, dividing it like a great fissure, 
is the " little nook of a river, ^^ immediately off " Fisher- 
man's Island," landward, north, a mile distant, into which 
the natives sought to decoy AVeymouth, under pretense of 
trade. Nearly parallel to Fisherman's Island, a mile distant 
within the outer harbor, is Squirrel Island, with " a pleasant 
sandy cove for small barks to ride in," on the west side, into 
which the swamp of Weymouth's '• pond of fresh water" 
still empties its runlet to the sea; and it was without 



PERIOD OP DISCOVERY. 75 

doubt, on the beach of this island, over against the ship's 
ancliorag'c, that the natives at first showed themselves stand- 
ing about their fires, gazing on the ship ; wliile on the cliff 
side of Fisherman's Island, near to the ship and her water- 
ing place, two of the five captured natives were taken ; and 
the naked reef of bare rocks, called the " Hipocrits" off 
the northern and eastern slope of this island, together with 
the " four" well known ship channels, entering from the 
east, south east, south and north, all clearly identify Booth- 
bay with the Pentacost harbor of Weymouth, discovered in 
1605, and which alone is capacious enough to hold the naval 
fleets of any nation at once. 

The newly constructed shallop, framed in England, built 
and launched in the rock sheltered haven of Fisherman's 
Island, probably made her first excursion from the harbor, 
by the inland passage north-westerly across or up the waters 
of the Sheepscot and the bay of Hockomock, through to the 
Sagadahock, opposite Bath ; where Weymouth " discovered" 
to his surprise, " a great river," which he imagined ran 
" far up into the land, by the breadth, depth and strong 
flood ;" and following the broad reach of the mouth of the 
Androscoggin, which trends west into the main and flows 
from the White Mountains, he explored that river as a part 
of the Sagadahock.^ 

Near the center of Boothbay Harbor, Burnt Island, a 
rocky eminence, lifts its bare bald surface above the waters 
of the bay and harbor, on which the United States Govern- 
ment has reared a harbor light. Here, doubtless, or on 
Tumbler Island, Weymouth erected the observatory for his 
nautical observation. 

The natural features thus enumerated, which neither time 
nor decay can efface from the earth's surface, and which are 
in no way dependent on mere hypothesis, but exist now as 

1 John McKeen, Esq. 



76 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

they did then, as facts, to one familiar with the localities, 
can leave no doubt that the Pentacost Harbor of Weymouth 
is the Townsend or Boothbay Harbor, situated at or between 
the waters forming the entrance to Sheepscot and Dam- 
ariscotta rivers. It is two and one half centuries since 
Weymouth, escaping from the embaying shoals and quick 
sands of Cape Cod, touched at Monhegan Island a month 
and one half after leaving England. In three days " more, 
steering directly in the road with the very high mount- 
ains, showing a great way up the main, at noon he came 
along to the other islands more adjoining to the main, about 
three leagues distant" from the first, under which ho had 
anchored, when his ship entered among these islands, was 
safely moored in a harbor " defended from all winds, in an 
excellent depth of water for ships of any burthen — where 
was good mooring even near the rocks by the cliff side." 

He had now fallen in with a land most prolific in all the 
resources of life — peopled with a numerous, courteous, 
ingenious and confiding race — the fairest specimens of abo- 
riginal humanity, as yet unsullied by the white man's touch, 
untainted by the approach of civilized life. Their inter- 
course, auspiciously begun, was clouded by acts of treachery, 
of which the white man seemed most capable, as he was the 
most adroit and successful in executing. A party of four 
natives of Pemaquid, of whom three were decoyed on board, 
(one of whom being made a victim to his own honesty,) 
were secured below, and two Avcre seized by force and 
dragged from the cliff top of the island, almost in sight of 
their Sovereign's Capital, by the hair of their heads, and 
immured on ship-board. They were all persons of more or 
less distinction among their fellows and one was a chief- 
tain. Their names were Nahanada, Sagamore; Skitwarrocs, 
Assecomet,^ Tisquantum, Dehamida, all of whom were 

1 John McKeen's Voyage of Weymouth, p. 332. 



PERIOD OF DISCOVERY, 77 

taken to England, fell into the hands and became objects 
of interest to the nobility, lived there about three years, and 
acquired the English language, gave a full account of their 
people and country, exciting a deep public interest in them- 
selves and their home, and returned as guides and interpret- 
ers to succeeding voyagers ; and thus all were restored 
again to their people and country. 

The return of Weymouth closed the era of discovery; 
fully confirming the public interest in efforts to secure so 
desirable a land of magnificent harbors, rivers and goodly 
forests, introducing and opening the period of settlement. 

Thus we have given the main incidents, facts and circum- 
stances as they transpired in the earliest explorations of this 
region, together with the personal appearance of the aborig- 
inal settlers on the waters of the Pemaquid, Sheepscot and 
Kennebec, at their first introduction to the white race ; and 
also the primitive aspect of our harbors, rivers, and head- 
lands, making up the landscape of the " Ancient Dominions 
of Maine," when its primeval forests in hoary grandeur 
towered on its hill-tops and shaded its dells, — realizing to 
our eyes, visions of rural magnificence, overspreading our 
naked landscapes, now in strange contrast, shorn and marred 
by the wood-man's axe — which two hundred and fifty years 
ago, excited the admiration of Europe, and made Pemaquid, 
Sagadahock and Sheepscot the most attractive of all the 
localities of New England, in the eyes of the nobility of 
old England. 

SUMMARY. 

Note. — 1 . All the most reliable and best informed cotemporaneous 
tistory locates the scene of Weymouth's discoveries at and near Pema- 
quid, and in the Kennebec or Sagadahock section thereof. 

2. The main incidents and facts indicative of the course steered from 
under Monhegan all lay "west from Pemaquid, the home of the captured 
natives. 



78 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

DISCOVERY OF FISHING GROUNDS. 

Weymouth in liis passage homeward bound, having run 
some thirty leagues from land, by his lead found the water 
shoaling from one hundred to twenty-four fathoms. While 
laying with sails furled, becalmed, the boatswain, Thomas 
King, " cast out a hook ; and before he judged it at ground, 
was fished and hauled up an exceeding great and well fed 
cod ; and then there were cast out three or four more ; and 
the fish were so plentiful and so great, some playing with the 
hook they took by the back, and two at a time. It was now 
perceived they were on a ' fish-bank.' " The waters of 
Maine had been frequented by continental fishermen at a 
very early period. The island of Monhegan, together with 
the Damariscove group, land-locking the harbor of Booth- 
bay, soon became noted depots for their fisheries. 

INTEREST EXCITED IN EUROPE. 

The section of country embracing the new discovered 
harbor and rivers of Pemaquid and Sagadahock by Wey- 
mouth — the home of his captive aborigines — had become 
a point of absorbing interest and speculation to the old 
world. 

All eyes were directed to it, and all commercial enterpris- 
es and colonial adventures were shaped to secure that land 
of magnificent harbors, rivers and forests, now opened in 
the west. 

Two years had elapsed since Weymouth's return. Under 
the freshened impulse of his discoveries, the Chief Justice 

3. The distant White Mountain views are more in accordance with the 
expressed purpose of Rosier, as land-marks, obscurity being his design in 
the description he gives — the Camden hills as land-marks would therefore 
have made the locality too palpable. 

4. The occupancy of the Kennebec by the colony, for whose settlement 
the exploration was made, rather than the Penobscot. 



PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 79 

of England, Lord Popliam, organized an expedition to col- 
onize the goodly land. The narrative of the expedi- 
1606. tion and the details of the voyage, we have. In the 
quaint style of the pure Anglo-Saxon, a record of the 
voyage, taken probably from the log-book of the expedition, 
has been preserved ; and gives to our eyes a most graphic 
picture of the natural features of the Kennebec, when her 
banks and unshorn head-lands were cloaked with mighty 
primeval forests of oak and pine, ere the white man's axe 
had cleared, or his hoe had broken the virgin soil. 



rf 



CHAPTER III. 



SETTLEMENT. 



ADVENTURES OP GILBERT AND POPHAM AT THE MOUTH OF THE 

KENNEBEC. 

Strachey, the liistorian of this voyage, was a man of 
intelligence, and as secretary of the company, must have 
had access to the most authentic material. Sir Jolin 
Popham " prepared a ' tall ship,' well furnished, belonging 
to Bristoll and the river Severn, with many planters, which 
sett out from Plymouth about Maye" * * * "to settle 
a plantation in the river Sagadahock." Thus the narrator 
begins his story, after noticing the interest excited in the 
public mind by the account of the islands and attractive 
harbor, and of the rivers Pemaquid and Sagadahock, then 
first explored by the voyagers of Weymouth just returned 
with several of the natives. But the " tall" ship of Popham 
sailing in the path of a Spanish fleet, whose commander 
learning her destination and the object of the voyage, was. 
made a prize and taken to France. 

This disaster did not discourage the Chief Justice of 
England, nor lead him " to give over his determination to 
plant a colony within the aforesaid so goodly a country 
upon the river of Sagadahock." 



82 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

t 

JOURNAL EXTRACTS FROM THE VOYAGE. 

The next year he fitted out a good ship " called tlie Mary 
and John of London, and " a fly boat called the 
1607. Gift of God," wherein George Popham commanded, 
and Raleigh Gilbert in the other, with more provis- 
ions and a larger company of " one hundred and twenty 
planters," who set sail from Plymouth in June. 

Always keeping their course to the westward as much 
as wind and weather would permit, on the 25th, fell in 
with islands, where they took in wood and water, and then 
again put to sea and ran " a course to the west and west- 
nor-west, as the wynd would give leave," till the 
July 27. lead brought ground in twenty and twenty-two 
fathom upon a bank near the 43d parallel. Here, 
in the language of the narrative, they fished some three 
hours ; " and tooke neere two hundred cod, very great fish, 
and where they might have laden their ship in little tyme." 
From hence, they again made sail, and stood for the main, 
the wind south-west ; and as they ran for the land from this 
bank, a north-west course, some thirty-six miles, soundings 
gave an oozy black bottom in sixty fathom. The wind was 
scant, and our voyagers were forced to haul further south- 
ward in their course, and steering south-west, away, sound- 
ings gave them thirty fathom, on fishing ground of small 

stones and white shells. 
29th. They held a west course till noon ; when sound- 
ings gave black oozy bottom and one hundred and 
sixty fathom. 
30th. In the morning, bearing north west, land hove in 
sight, thirty miles distant ; and one hundred fathom, 
black oozy bottom was brought by the lead. 

They stood for the land, and as they could not fetch in 
before dark, they about ship, and lay " a hull, all that 
night," finding abundance of fish, " very large and great ; '* 



SETTLEMENT. OtJ 

water, eighteen to twenty fathom deep — "hard abourd the 
shore." 

THE SPANISH SHALLOP. 

After mid-day, still running toward land, they found the 
coast full of islands — water deep hard aboard of 
them — safe passages for shipping round tlicm ; Tinder 31st. 
one of which they cast anchor. In two hours after 
anchorage, a Spanish shallop pushed off from the shore 
towards the ships, containing eight savages, and a native 
boy. They rowed about the ships ; but ventured not to 
board at first, though tempted by a display of knives, food, 
beads and trinkets. 

Having satisfied their curiosity, the natives made a feint 
to depart ; but soon turned back ; when three of them came 
boldly into the vessel, while the others made for the shore, 
with intimations of a return next day. 

The same natives returned in another shallop, 
laden with beaver skins, accompanied by their wo- Aug. 1. 
men. Their purpose now was trade. 

At midnight, the moon shining brightly, and with 
the wind fair to the north-east, our voyagers set sail, 2d. 
standing along the range of the coast south-westerly. 

BOOTHBAY AND KENNEBEC. 

In the morning, very early, within three miles of 
land, they discovered many islands, with navigable od. 
sounds betwixt ; but " they made proof of none of 
tliem." 

This morning found the ships off a cape or head- 
land. " The cape is low land, shewing white, like 4th. 
sand, but yet is all white rocks — and a strong tyde 
goeth there." 

The head-land thus described may have been Cape Small 
Point, the terminus of the peninsula of the town of Phips- 



84 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

burg on the west, and bounding the bay of Sagadahock ; 
the flux and reflux of whose waters created the " strong 

tyde which goeth there." 
6 & 7th. Tlie ships were brought to anchor under the lee 

of an island ; which, on finding Weymouth's cross 
still erect, in memorial of his visit the year before, they 
knew was St. George. 

Their anchorage lay inside Monhegan toward PemaqTiid, 
" four leagues" distant ; and about midnight Capt. Gilbert 
caused his ship's boat to be manned with fourteen of liis 
crew, together with Skitwarrocs, who had been kidnapped by 
Weymouth near Townsend Harbor, but now returned to liis 
people and home, as a guide and interpreter. 

LANDING AT PEMAQUID. 

Tliis company embarked in the boat, rowing westward, 
from where the ships lay, for Pemaquid river, where the 
party landed on the main. 

Skitwarroes, undoubtedly entirely familiar with all the 
localities of his birth place, conducted them at once to the 
" salvages houses, of a hundred men, women and children." 

ADVENTUEES ON THE MAIN. 

There they found Nahanada (who had been a fellow captive 
with Skitwarroes, under the decks of Weymouth's ship,) the 
chief man of the settlement.^ On the first appearance of 
Gilbert's boatmen, the natives seized tlieir weapons, exhibit- 
ing a hostile attitude ; but Skitwarroes and Nahanada meeting 
each other, and the party being discovered to be English- 
men, the natives relaxed their hostile aspect, and their 
chiefs embraced and welcomed them. Two hours were 
spent in cheerful and happy greetings, when the party of 
Gilbert " returned abourd again." 

1 See Popham's letter, Me. Hist. Col. — Latin. 



SETTLEMENT. 85 

SABBATH SERVICES. 

The Sabbath dawned. The chiefs of each ship with 
most of their company, landed on the island ; and Mr. 9th. 
Seymour, their chaplain, delivered a sermon ; and re- 
ligious worship was celebrated under the cross of Weymouth. 

HOSTILITY OP THE NATIVES. 

Capt. Popham manned his shallop and Gilbert his 
boat, the company numbering fifty persons, and 10th. 
embarked for the mouth of Pemaquid. Skitwarroes 
accompanied them. On reaching land, Nahanada with his 
braves received them with distrust ; and as the boat party 
came opposite and in front of their homes, the natives would 
not " willingly have all the boats' people come on shore." 

DESERTION OF THEIR GUIDE. 

An hour was spent in negotiations, when the whole body 
of natives suddenly withdrew to the woods, and Skitwarroes 
with them. Their distrust is not to be wondered at, when 
it is remembered the treachery of Weymouth two years 
before must have been yet fresh in their minds, and the 
wrong still rankling in their hearts ; and some demonstrations 
must have been made, which inspired Popham's company 
with apprehension, " for he rowed to the other side of the 
river," — probably to tlie Boothbay shore near Hodgdon's 
Mills—" and there remained for the niglit." 

On the eleventh, toward evening, the whole party 
returned to their ships, " which still rode under St. George's 
island" — after having undoubtedly entered and explored 
the mouth of the Damariscotta river, to the western mar- 
gins of which it would seem they had retired from before 
the menacing bowmen of Nahanada at Pemaquid. 

DEPARTURE FOR SAGADAHOCK. 

" They weyed anchors and sett saile to goe for the 
river of Sagadahoc." 12th. 



86 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

They were south off Segiiin island, a league dis- 
13th. taut — " but they did not take it to be Sutquin." 

THE GALE. 

" Soe the weather being very fair, they sought the islands 
further to the westward," — became soon becalmed, and 
were forced to remain at sea, having overshot their island 
mark. At midnight a mighty storm arose, and bore them 
on a lee shore, and in danger of being wrecked, — " by 
reason they were so neere the shoar and could not gett off, — 
the wynd all the while south, and yt blew very stiffe, soe 
as they were compelled to tvirn yt to and agayne" — i. e. — 
to stand off and on. 

" Soe soon as the daye gave light," finding themselves 
hard " abourd the lee shore" in the bay they were 
14th. in the day before, — (Broad Bay?) — they looked 
for a place to " thrust in the shipp to save their lives." 
In towing their boat, " yt laye suncke at the sterne two 
bowers and more." Then putting up the helm, they stood 
in for the shore ; " when anon they perceived two little 
islands," for which they made, and finding good anchorage, 
( George's Island harbor ? ) there rode out the gale. Here 
they freed their boat. Upon one of the islands they found 
"four natives — one a female," — the "islands all rockye 
and full of pine trees." 

The storm ceased, and the wind came fair for them to 

go to Sagadahock, — the river whither they were 

15th. bound. The wind was off shore, and running in 

under Seguin, they could not get into Sagadahock. 

The ship then came to anchor, but the fly-boat worked into 

the river. 
16th. In the morning, Popham sent out his shallop to 
help in the ship. It being calm, the ship weighed 
anchor and was soon towed up " and anchored by the Gift's 
Bide." 



SETTLEMENT. 8T 

ENTRANCE AND DEBARKATION AT THE MOUTH OP THE SAG- 

ADAHOCK. 

Popliam ill his pinnace, and Gilbert in his long boat — 
the one carrying thirty, and the other eighteen men, 
at morning light rowed from the ship into the river 17th. 
Sagadahock, in search of a place to found the home 
of tlieir colony. They sailed up far into the interior, and 
" found yt a very gallant river," very deep, and seldom less 
water than three fathoms ; and returning the same day, they 
observed many " goodly islands therein, and many branches 
of other small rivers falling therein." 

SELECTION OF A TOWN SITE. 

All went on shore, and there made choice of a place for 
their plantation, " at the mouth or entry of the river 
on the west side, (for the river bendeth yt self to- 18th. 
wards the nor-east and by east,) being allmost an 
island of a good bigness, in a province called by the Indians 
Sabino, so called of a Sagamore, or chief commander, under 
the grand Bashaba." 

MEETING WITH THE NATIVES. 

This day gave the company their first view of the aborig- 
inal inhabitants of the Kennebec. " Three canoes full of 
Indians came to tbem ; but would not come neere ; but 
rowed away up the river." These undoubtedly were river 
natives and strangers ; and not of the tribe to which Naha- 
nada and Skitwarroes, the captives of Weymouth belonged, 
who were residents and natives from about the mouth of the 
Damariscotta, near Pemaquid, and of the tribe of the Wa- 
wemiocks.^ 

1 Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 28. 



§8 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

POSSESSORY SERVICES AND RITES. 

Formal rites and ceremonies were tliis day performed in 
taking possession of the site of their plantation by a 
19th. solemn consecration of the spot, in acts of public 
religious worship, the civil organization of their body 
and the promulgation of their laws. A sermon was preached 
(the second on New England shores,) and George Popham 
was chosen Governor ; Capt. Gilbert, James Davis, Rev. 
Richard Seymour, Richaid Davis, and Capt. Harlow were 
sworn assistants. 

BREAKING OF GROUND. 

Possession having been thus acquired, and the place of 
their choice consecrated and made secure by all the forms 
which Religion and Law could suggest, the company re- 
turned to their ships. 

All were summoned to the work of breaking 
20th. ground in the erection of a town ; and on reaching 
their previously selected site, they " there began to 
entrench and make a fort and to build a store house." For 
the eight succeeding days all labored diligently in raising 
the fort ; and the carpenters in stretching the keel of the first 
vessel launched on the waters of New England, which was 
from the banks of the Kennebeck, the President over 
seeing and directing all. 

EXPLORATIONS. 

To-day Capt. Gilbert departed on a voyage of dis- 
covery westward, sailing by " many gallant islands." 28th. 
At night the shallop anchored under a " head-land — 
the wynd comyng contrary — called by the Indians Semia- 
mis" — now Cape Elizabeth — "the land exceedingly good 
and fertile, as appeared by the trees growing thereon being 
goodly and great." Native canoes passed, but would not come 
near the shallop ; and having entered Casco Bay and sailed 



SETTLEMENT. 89 

through some of its magnificent sounds, on the 30th " they 
returned homeward before the wynd, sayUng by many goodly 
and gallant islands." To the 5th of Sept. all were engaged 
in erecting their new homes and completing their fortified 
works. 

EETURN OF SKITWARROES. 

" About noon, there came into the entrance of the river 
Sagadahock and soe unto the fort " — where the people were 
at work — •' nine canoes with forty savages in them, men, 
women, and children," Skitwarroes and the Pcmaquid chief 
Nahanada, with Sasanoa among them. They were kindly 
and hospitably entertained by President Popham, and re- 
mained some two or three hours, when they withdrew to the 
opposite shore, while Skitwarroes and others remained at the 
fort till night, when Gilbert, Jas. Davies, and Elias Beast 
visited the encampment and there tarried during the night. 
Early in the morning the natives embarked for the eastward 
and returned to the river of Pcmaquid. 

UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH FOR PENOBSCOT. 

The labor on the fortified works still employed all Sept. 
hands. On the 8th Capt. Gilbert and twenty-two 6 & 7. 
others embarked in the shallop for Penobscot river. 

Early in the morning of the 11th, they reached Pcma- 
quid, found their savage friends had gone before them ; 
" and all that day, as likewise the 12th and 13th, they sayled 
and searched to the eastward, yet by noe means could find 
the river." To the 22d all were engaged on the fort and 
store-house. 

ADVENTURES UP IN THE INTERIOR. 

It would seem Capt. Gilbert was the explorer of the 

Note. — Why did not Capt. Davis, a companion of Weymouth, know 
where to find the Penobscot ? 



90 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

expedition, and on his return from his fruitless search for the 
Penobscot, an examination of the Kennebec to its navi- 
23d. gable head was projected. So on the date here given, 
Gilbert and nineteen of the expedition embarked in the 
shallop, " to goe for the head of Sagadahoc." On the after- 
noon of the 24th, the party reached a champaign country, 
very fertile. Early in the morning of the 2oth, they em- 
barked and sailed along until reaching a low, flat inland, 
where a great cataract or downfall or water — " which run- 
neth by both sides of this island very shold and swift " — 
stayed their progress. It is quite probable that the explorers 
had followed the broad reach of the Androscoggin to the 
westward, instead of the more tortuous and latent stream 
of the Kennebec, where both rivers unite in Merry-meeting 
Bay, and had now reached the falls at Brunswick. 

FACE OF THE COUNTRY AND DISCOVERIES. 

Grapes, hops, garlic &c. abounded on this island. They 
forced their boat through the downfall by hauling her 
with a strong rope, and advanced a league further up 
the river. Here they encamped for the night. In the early 
evening, in broken English, savage voices were heard calling 
from the opposite shore — to which our voyagers replied. 

In the morning a canoe approached, in which a sag- 
26th. amore and four natives visited their encampment. 

The chief's name was " Sebenoa," who said he was 
" lord of the river of Sagadahock." 

THE ALTERCATION WITH THE NATIVES. 

The chief entered Gilbert's boat, after a friendly inter- 
view, but required that one of Gilbert's men, " as a pawn 
of safety," should be put on board the canoe. Immediately 
the canoe hasted away with all the speed it could make, up 
the river. The shallop pursued ; and great care was taken 
that the hostage chief should not leap overboard. The 



SETTLEMENT. 91 

canoe landed, and the white man was hurried to their 
abodes, " neere a league on the land from the river's side." 
In the pursuit, the shallop soon reached a second downfall 
of water — " so shallow, so swift " as to forbid any further 
progress by water. Gilbert landed with nine men and the 
hostage chief, and after a good tedious march, overtook the 
savages, and found " neere fifty able men, very strong and 
tall, such as their like before they had not seen ; all newly 
painted and armed with bows and arrows." Notwithstand- 
ing these hostile indications, peaceful overtures prevailed, 
and proposals for trade were made. Gilbert departed ; but 
was followed by a body of sixteen natives in less than half an 
hour ; and the articles found in the canoes for barter clear- 
ly indicating other objects than trade, he re-embarked all 
his company with a view to leave the region. 

The natives suspecting the purpose of Capt. Gilbert, and 
fearing his firelocks, attempted to extinguish his fires, so as 
to prevent the lighting of the matches. "With this view, a 
native sprang into the shallop, seized the fire-brand from him 
who held it for use, flung it into the water, and leaped from 
the shallop. Gilbert commanded his men to seize their fire- 
arms, and the targitiers too. Ue " bad one of the men 
before with his target on his arm, to go on shore for more 
fire." ^ The natives resisted, and held the boat by its rope, 
" that the shallop could not put off." The musquetiers 
then presented their pieces, when the natives seizing their 
arms, fled for the woods, " knocking their arrows, but did 
not shoot." Gilbert and his men withdrew to the opposite 
shore. A canoe followed to excuse the hostile bearing of 
the natives. Gilbert kindly entertained the messages of 

^ Fire-arms had but recently been invented, and only the ancient 
^'' matchlock" used, with which (iilbert's men were now armed. This cum- 
bersome weapon was rested on a support, and discharged by a match or 
fire-brand, and was called matchlock in contra-distinction to our ancient 
but more perfect firelock — now being replaced by our modern caplock. 



92 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

peace, but made the best of his way back to the settlement 
and fort, seeing as he passed abundance of spruce trees, 
" such as are able to mast the greatest ship his majestie 
hath " — fish in abundance — " great store of grapes — and 
also found certain codds in which they supposed the cotton 
wool to grow, and also upon the banks many shells of pearl." 
Having reared a cross, they continued homeward bound, 
" in the way seeking the by river of some note, called Sasa- 
noa." 

On the 27th of September, " the weather turned fowle and 
full of fog and rain." The party gave up their search, and 
in two days more reached the fort on their return. 

OVEETUEES FROM THE NATIVE SOVEREIGN. 

On the 3d of October, Skitwarroes appeared and advised 
them that a brother of the Bashaba waited their pleasure on 
the opposite shore. The savages remained the guests of 
Popliam through the sabbath, and the President took them 
to the place of public prayer, " which they attended both 
morning and evening with great reverence and silence." 

About the 6tli of October, the fort was entirely finished, 
intrenched, and mounted with twelve cannon, and the town 
was called " St. George." ^ A church was erected, and 
fifty houses besides the store-house were reared within the 

FIRST SHIP BUILT IN NEW ENGLAND. 

fortification. The material for a small ship of about ^ fifty 
tons was gathered and put up by the carpenters, under 
charge of a master-builder — the first on the Kennebec — 
Digby by name, of London. This vessel was launched into 
the waters of the Kennebec, and was called the " Virginia 
of Sagadahoc." 

1 Bancroft, vol. i. p. 268. 

2 F. ]\Iiss. p. 240. 



SETTLEMENT. 



DEATH OP THE PKESIDENT, 



93 



Popham and some others died, and the remainder of 
the colonists awaited the return of Capt. Davis from Eng- 
land. The fortifications, the church, the public store- 
house with fifty dwelling houses, the ship yard and Virginia 
on the stocks, must have exhibited an imposing and busi- 
ness-like town at the mouth of the Sagadahock, in October, 
1607, which in the dim distance of two centuries and a 
half, brings up visions of the past strangely in contrast with 
the present. Where is the grave of Popham ? Where is 
the monument of this early adventurer to the shores of 
the Kennebec ? Who celebrates the remembrance of these 
hardy scions of the Anglo-Saxon stock, which sought 
root amid the primeval forests of Sagadahock ? None 
but those who have imbibed the spirit of naval architecture, 
with which these adventurous artisans inspired the waters 
of the Kennebec and the forests of Sagadahock, where it has 
lingered fromthatday until now, and made the banks of this 
river the great naval mart of the United States of America. 

TRADITIONARY REMINISCENCES. 

Cotemporary history and tradition^ have handed down 
some additional details of interest connected with Popham's 
colony, throwing fuller light on the causes of its aliandonmcnt. 
On the decease of their President, it is natural to suppose that 
less circumspection marked the intercourse of the new set- 
tlers with the natives, and that a degree of lawlessness pre- 

1 " It is reported by an ancient mariner, yet living in these parts as a 
person of goofl credit, that being in the eastern parts about Kennebec, he 
heard an old Indian say, that when he was a youth there was a Fort built 
about Sagadahock, the ruins of which were then seen, and supposed to be 
that called St. George. * * * Upon some quarrel that fell out between the 
Indians and English, some were killed by the Indians, and the rest driven 
out of the Fort." — Hubbard's Indian Wars, p. 75. Appendix. 



94 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

vailed, which may have begotten a spirit of recklessness, 
sure to bring forth the fruits of disaster. Popham, who 
with diligence and skill had overseen and directed all, was 
gone. An equally skillful pilot, probably, was not to be 
found at the helm. Freedom and friendliness of intercourse 
with the well-disposed and magnanimous Wewannocks of Pen- 
tacost Harbor, had lulled suspicion and engendered a reckless- 
ness, inconsistent with peace and safety in their intercourse 
with the fierce stranger savage inhabitants on the upper 
waters of the Kennebec. The lord of Sagadahock probably 
had not lost all recollection of the interview with Gilbert upon 
his inland voyage, in which his painted braves were outwit- 
ted and defeated in their hostile purposes. The friends of 
Skitwarroes and Nahanada, eastern natives and dwellers 
about Pemaquid and Boothbay, though they had been out- 
raged by the treachery of George Weymouth two years 
before, in the forcible abduction of five of their number, 
with much frankness and forbearance sought the friendship 
of the colonists. 

" Sasanoa," representing the Royal authority, had warmly 
invited the European strangers to visit his sovereign ; and 
on their failure to execute a purpose to do so, from adverse 
circumstances, yet the attempt was received as evidence of 
good faith on the part of the white man ; and a member of 
the Royal family with a number of attendants came to the 
settlement to open and legalize trade. The terms were 
agreed to ; and under generous auspices a trade was begun, 
the savage chief, Amenquin, ^ with bold and generous spirit 
stripping off his beaver coat, and giving it in exchange for a 
straw hat and knife. 

COLLISION WITH NATIVES. 

With the stranger natives above, it is probable matters 

1 Amenqviin — Is this Mon-quine, the chieftain who sold to Bradford and 
others his Kennebeck purchase ? 



SETTLEMENT. 95 

did not go so smoothly — Stracliey's account clearly indicates 
tlieii' hostile proclivities. 

Being gatliered at the fort for traffic, the savages were 
trained to draw a small cannon by its drag ropes. When 
thus exposed, the gun was discharged, killing some and 
wounding others, and as we may presume, filling all 
with madness. An altercation took place. In the issue, a 
colonist Avas slain ; and the survivors fled from the fort, leav- 
ing arms and ammunition exposed. The powder scattered 
about the opened casks — now the dangerous sport and plun- 
der of the victorious and ignorant natives, dancing and 
rioting in their success — became ignited, and in the terrific 
explosion which followed, blew up the fort and destroyed 
many of the savages. 

COLONY ABANDONED. 

Overwhelmed with the crashing thunders of the report 
and disaster, half dead with fear, the natives in their sim- 
plicity interpreted it as an exhibition of the anger of the 
Great Spirit at the wrongs done the strangers. These appre- 
hensions wrought repentance which issued in pacific over- 
tures, and led to a restoration of friendly intercourse. 
Such is the story of tradition. If it be all as rumor has 
handed it down, we have a sufficient reason for the early 
departure of Popham's colonists, and abandonment of their 
homes amid the rocky ramparts of the ocean at the mouth 
of the Kennebec, which was thus made the scene of abortive 
colonial adventure in 1607. ^ 

During the next four years no important incident 
occurred, within the ancient dominions of Maine, if 1611. 
we except the kindling of those embers of civil strife 
among the natives, whose flame consumed the great Bash- 



1 Supplement to King Philip's war, p. 75. Williamson, vol. i. pp. 200, 
201. 



96 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

aba and scattered the people of the Wawennocks. There 
was nearly an annual return of various ships from England, 
attracted still by the public interest centering in these west- 
ern wilds. 

MONHEGAN SETTLEMENTS. 

From the period of Popham's enterprise on the Saga- 
dahock, from the date of Weymouth's discovery — Monhe- 
gan (a corruption of the aboriginal Mcnahan, " an island") 
in the panorama of sea life exhibiting "the remarkablest 
lies and Mountains for land-marks," — " a rovnd high isle,'^ 
with the little " Monas " l)y its side, " betwixt which is a 
small harbor, where their ship was anchored," — says Smith, — 
became a place of general resort, as it was a way station for 
trade and supplies. 

" Abraham Jcnnens," * a fish merchant of Plymouth 
concerned in trade with Abncr Jcnnens of London, employ- 
ing a large tunnage in the cod-fisheries and trade on the 
coast, acquired the original ownership of this island. 

Here and on the neighboring main land at Pemaquid, and 
without doubt, on the islands land-locking Booth1)ay Harbor, 
were stages or posts for trading and fishing. Indeed, " Mon- 

RECKLESS VOYAGERS. HARLOW. 

began " had now become a noted depot for trade with the 
natives, as well as a land-mark for voyagers, when Harlow, 
by acts of rapacity and outrage, disturbed the peaceful cur- 
rent of events. 

On a voyage from Europe, sent to make examination of 
Cape Cod, his ship had touched and taken shelter under the 
island of Monhegan. 

The natives having learned the advantages, were stimu- 
lated by the excitement of trade, and visited the lagging 

1 Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 38. 



SETTLEMENT. 97 

ship to " truck." But Harlow, under the mask of friend- 
ship, seized three whom he had enticed into his ship. One 
of his victims leaped back into the sea, and made good his 
escape to the land, when gathering the bowmen of his tribe, 
he assailed Harlow with desperate fury — cut away his stern 
boat, and taking her to the beach, filled her with sand, — suc- 
cessfully beating off the force sent from the ship with showers 
of barbed arrows, " sorely wounding some of the ship's 
crew," ^ retaining the boat in defiance of all efforts to 
recover her I • 

smith's adventures. 

Capt. John Smith, whose life in southern Virginia had 
been spared at the solicitation and intercession of 
Pocahontas, the daughter of Powhatan, next visit- 1614. 
ed our waters with a flotilla of fishermen at Sag- 
adahock, to fish and trade, as well as explore the coun- 
try. With two vessels, a ship and bark. Smith sailed from 
England bound for Sagadahock, the "El Dorado" of the 
new world, and now the central point of western attraction 
to the crowded communities of the old. In the month of 
April he arrived at Monhegan, and sailed for Sagadahock. 
Building a number of boats, he circulated among the islands, 
bays and river mouths, east and west, adding to discoveries 
already made and beating up trade with the natives of the 
coast. 

Whales, at that period, were found in our waters ; and 
more recently these monsters of the deep have showed them- 
selves off" Cape Newagen and sported in the waters of the 
Sheepscot. His men pursued the fishing of the whale here, 
where the Royal head of the Wawennocks had fished before 
him ; but found it profitless, as the fish taken yielded neither 
the "fins nor oil" of commerce. Gold and copper could, 

1 Williamson, vol. i. p. 207. 



98 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

not be found to mine npon the land. Off Monhegan and 
about the waters of Penobscot Bay, he came in coUision with 
the natives ; and in the conflict some of his men liad fallen ; 
where also he found a ship of Sir Francis Popham, which 
for " many years" ^ had visited the waters of St, George's 

river only. On the conclusion of his explorations 
July 18. he sailed for England ; and although the voyage 

yielded no fruits of special interest in the success of 
any colonial movement, yet it was of great service to sci- 
ence in the diffusion of a knowledge of the geography of 
this section, and to the patrons of the expedition in the profits 
of the voyage. 

WAWENNOCKS DISPERSED. 

But a constant and natural increment of population ap- 
peared about the islands, bays, harbors and rivers, in trading 
posts, fishing stations, and " truck houses," from every expedi- 
tion, by desertion from ships and otherwise. A bloody and 
exterminating warfare between the Bashaba of the Wawen- 
nocks of the ancient regal race dwelling about the Sheep- 
scot and Damariscotta and Pemaquid waters, in which this 
people with their kingly pride and power, became ex- 
1615. tinct, now raged in the height of its ravages, render- 
ing all intercourse with the main land for trade and 
settlement hazardous in the extreme. For two years, the 
tide of blood and carnage rolled on, bearing with it and leav- 
ing everywhere the dark image of death and pestilence in 
.the houses of the aboriginal race. 

rocroft's voyage. 

The voyager Rocroft next appeared off Monhegan to take 

fish, and lade his ship with the sun-dried cod ; and 

1618. on his arrival, detecting a French bark, sheltered in 

a creek, where she traded and made her fish, for some 

I Prince's New England Chronology, p. 15. 



SETTLEMENT. 99 

affront given by her commander, Rocroft seized and made her 
his prize. His crew however mutinied ; and on discovery of 
their purposes he landed the disaffected ones on the main — 
(probably tlie crew of the captured bark) — who, to escape 
the desolation and exposure of a winter, houseless on the 
banks of the Saco, reached Monhegan and wintered there in 
the deserted cabins of a former population which had now 
retired to Pemaquid.^ 

The treachery and cupidity of the whites had exasperat- 
ed the surviving native race, still under the excitement of a 
civil war, to such a degree, that the interests of commerce 
began to suffer by the interruption of trade and settlement. 

hunt's perfidy. 

Hunt, a subordinate in command, under Smith, who had 
been left to complete his voyage and sail for Spain, following 
the exa,mple of his predecessors, had kidnapped a number 
of the natives, particularly on the back side of Cape Cod. 

A French ship, two years previously, had been wrecked 
there ; and the survivors of this shipwreck were watched and 
dogged by the savages till nearly all were slain. Three or 
four were saved, " treated worse than slaves, and sent from 
sachem to sachem to make sport." It was one of this ship- 
wrecked company who forewarned their savage tormentors 
that the wrath of God would ere long overtake them for their 
barbarity, rebuking them for their " bloudy deede," to which 
they ever replied they were " too many for God." Disease 
soon over-swept the whole region, and left it without an in- 
habitant, the unburied corpses, and bleaching bones, and 
ghastly skulls of the unnumbered dead filling the forest 
wilds with hideous visions of death and depopulation. 

^ J. W. Thornton. Esq. 



100 ancient dominions of maine. 

deemer's adventures. 

Captain Thomas Dermer was despatched on a mis- 
sion of peace to the savage wilds of our coast with a 1619. 
view to restore the settlements scattered and broken 
up by the ruthless civil wars among the natives, and to al- 
lay the irritation occasioned by the treachery of Harlow and 
Hunt. He commanded a ship of two hundred tons, with 
orders from Gorges to join Rocroft, who, having gone to 
southern Virginia with the French prize, as he was about to 
return northward, met the newly appointed Governor, Sir 
Geo. Yeardly, inward bound. The Governor ordered Ro- 
croft to board his ship. This Rocroft did, leaving his own 
vessel with less than half her crew, at anchor. But a storm 
arising, Rocroft was forced to remain for the night, during 
which his own bark was driven on shore and sunk. By the 
aid of the Governor, Rocroft recovered his bark, but while 
refitting her for the voyage to Virginia of the north, in a 
quarrel with one of the Virginia planters, he was slain and 
his vessel lost. 

Dermer, learning the fate of his associate at Monhegan, 
sailed in an open pinnace of five tons for the south. In 
passing around Cape Cod, by the inland passage, he heard 
of the fate of the wrecked crew of the French ship, 
and seeking out the survivors, redeemed them 1620. 
from their savage captors. On his return voyage, June 30. 
the savage Squanto, of Plymouth notoriety, (and 
it is also said, Samoset)^ accompanied Dermer ; who had 
each been taken to Europe by the perfidious Hunt, the one 
from about Pemaquid, near to Monhegan ; and the other 
from Cape Cod. Reaching Long Island Sound, southward 
bound, by way of the inland passage, having accomplished 
.liis peaceful mission in restoring confidence to the natives, 

1 Williamson's Hist. Tol. i. pp. 213, 218. Piince, p. 99. 



SETTLEMENT. 101 

and reviving the settlements about Sagadaliock, Dermer 
landed to refresh himself and company. But the savage in- 
habitants deeply provoked by the barbarous conduct of Hunt, 
visited on the noble Dermer the retribution due to the kid- 
napper. The crew on shore and the boat on the beach were 
assailed by the infuriated savages. 

Dermer fought his way to the boat, and was badly wound- 
ed, a native seized him and threw him on the cuddy ^ deck, 
and attempted to sever his head from the body, when the 
only survivor of the boat's crew, a redeemed Frenchman, 
came to his rescue with a drawn sword. His savage attend- 
ants earnestly interceding in his behalf, further violence was 
stayed, the boat surrendered, and Dermer with one man es- 
caped to Virginia where he soon died. 

These facts afford a probable solution of the presence of 
Samoset and Squanto among the Plymouth Pilgrims. 

SAMOSET. 

Samoset was a native of Pemaquid — the Lord of Monhe- 
gan — an eastern prince — the great chief and original pro- 
prietor of the town of Bristol, whose conveyance of the 
same to John Brown is the first landed ^ title by deed ac- 
knowledged, ever given to a white man. 

An effectual lodgment had now been made at several 
points within the territory of New England. Prior 
1620. to the date of the visit of Rocroft and Dermer, the 
Dec. 21. settlers on Monhegan had removed to the neigh- 
boring main, and erected new houses at Pemaquid. 
A hamlet had also sprung up on the sands of Plymouth har- 
bor, where the Puritan refugees had established their homes 
and founded a colony. Sagadahock, and probably the islands 

1 Prince, p. 68. Williamson's Hist. vol. i. p. 219. Young's Chron. p. 182. 

2 July 15th, 1625. Report Com. Lincoln Co., Me., pp. 106—7. 



102 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

land-locking Boothbay Harbor, if not the harbor itself, 
tinder its aboriginal name of " Cape Ne-wagcn," — a corrup- 
tion of the Indian Ne-krangan — were now occupied by 
" truck-masters " and fish makers. 

Samoset, or Summarset, ( as spelled in a con- 
veyance to Parnell, Way, and England, under his Mar. 16. 
autograph, of Soggohannago, near to Pemaquid,) 
was tlie first native of the New World, an inhabitant of the 
remote East, who, to the astonishment of the Pilgrim settlers 
at Plymouth, walking boldly and alone into their streets, 
greeted the forlorn colonists with " Much welcome. English- 
men," in a broken dialect of their own tongue. He was a 
man free of speech and of seemly carriage, — " stark naked, 
only a leathern girdle about his waist," " with a fringe a 
span long or little more — armed with a bow and two arrows, 
tne one headed and the other unheaded." " He was a tall, 
straight man, — the hair on his head black, long behind, only 
straight before, and none on his face at all." How hap- 
pened it that this Pemaquid chieftain should have been at 
Cape Cod at this juncture ? The presumption that he was 
the companion of Squanto, and with him, had accompanied 
Dermer on his fatal inland passage, and was left with 
Squanto at the time of the assault and rescue of Dermer on 
Cape Cod, explains all. Embarking at Monhegan, he was 
present at Cape Cod when Dermer was attacked ; and on the 
flight of Dermer, Samosset was left there. For he tells the 
Plymotheans that he was a sagamore from Morattigon, now 
conceded to be Monhegan ; that he had been in their coun- 
try " about eight months,^^ — that the natives in their imme- 
diate neighborhood were very hostile, — and eight months be- 
fore had slain " three Englishmen, two others with difficulty 
escaping^ — the men being Sir F. Gorge s\^' ^ Such being 
the state of facts, " Sommarset " or Samosset, and Squanto, 

1 Prince's N. E. Chronology, p. 68. 



SETTLEMENT. 103 

having aidod in the rescue of Dermer and seen him safely 
off, remained, and in the autumn and spring, after the 
arri\al of the Mayflower, were found among their savage 
brethren near Cape Cod Harbor, having possibly descried 
the approach of the vessel from the sand cliffs about the 
cape, and followed it to the place of final debarkation. The 
natives fearing and hating the new comers, of course shun- 
ned them ; but Sommarset, ascertaining that they were Euro- 
peans — countrymen of his friend Dermer, — with fearless 
intrepidity sought an acquaintance by walking into their 
midst and extending an "English Welcome," which as a 
matter of course greatly surprised the colonists. Thus was 
prepared the way for a peaceful and friendly introduction 
of the Puritan Fathers of New England to the aborigines 
of the wilds of their adopted home, in the misfortunes of 
the truly noble and beneficent Dermer — a victim to the 
reckless and wanton conduct of wicked white men. 

SAMOSSET AT BOOTHBAT HARBOR. 

Having feai'lessly served his friend Dermer and welcomed 
the forlorn voyagers who were seeking a home on the bleak 
shores and barren sands of Cape Cod from the decks of the 
Mayflower, " Sommarset," " the Lord of Pemaquid," re- 
turned to his eastern dominions ; and in the waters of the 
Sheepscot, at Cape Ne-wagen, met Capt. Levett ^ two years 
after, of whom as a " chief sagamore " Levet speaks, (doubt- 
less referring to his agency in Dormer's behalf,) as " one that 
hath oeen found very faithful to the English, and hath saved 
the lives of many of our nation ; some from killing and 
others from starving." 

The domain of the town of Bristol, this chieftain with 
another sold to John Brown ; and in its vicinity a second 



^Levett's Voyage, Me. Hist. Col. Mass. Hist. Col. vol. vili. p. 170, 3d 
series. 



104 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

parcel of land soon after to Parnell, Way, and England. 
Samosset, the magnanimous chieftain of the East, who, fore- 
most of his race, frank, generous, and fearless — welcomed 
the forlorn and sea-worn Pilgrims — appears in a novel and 
attractive light. 

In the person of this savage, the Lord of Pemaquid, the 
great Bristol Sachem, we see Maine on the sands of Cape Cod, 
at the very dawn of the existence of New England liistory, 
standing with outstretched arms and generous greetings to 
receive and introduce, under auspicious circumstances, the 
embryo state of Massachusetts, from the decks of the May- 
flower, to her wild home on the shores of the New World ! 

From Monhegan and Pemaquid, the attractive 
harbors of the Main had even now drawn pioneer 1621. 
settlers ; for on the margins of Broad Bay, ^ in Bris- 

NOTE. 

" § Thes Presents Obbelly-gacion handed mee Captaine Sommarset of M " 
" ( Miscongus ? ) have sold unto Thomas Way, William Parnell and " 
" William England one thousand hakkers of land in Saggohannago, being " 
" quiet Possed by William Parnell and Thomas Way and William Eng- " 
" land th st day of July, 1653." 

"HIS 



" Capt, John Somerset," 




The above is from the original draft furnished the author by the kindness 
of J. Wingate Thornton, Esq., Boston, and in his possession — the mark 
itself bearing the evidence of a trembling hand, indicative of the great age 
of this chief at the date it was made. 



SETTLEMENT. 105 

tol, we find John Pierce had made a clearing and founded 
a new home. 

DAMARISCOVE. 

Thirty sail this year entered at Damariscove — 
1622. which was now the granary of the embryo settle- 
ments of New England — whose name (an English 
corruption of words signifying a " fish place ") indicates its 
early importance as a fishing depot. The ship Swallow from 
here sent her shallop to Plymouth ; and to Damariscove 
came Winslow of the Plymouth plantation, (the Governor 
of the colony,) to draw supplies for his settlement, famishing 
on the shores of Cape Cod, — who says, " I found kind enter- 
tainment and good respect, with a willingness to supply our 
wants — which was done so far as able — and would not take 
any bills for the same, but did what they could ^ freely," — 
which certainly indicates that the inhabitants of Damaris- 
cove were a thrifty and generous people. The Jennens firm 
of Plymouth and London had at Monhegan, the Abraham 
of Plymouth, of the burden of two hundred and twenty 
tons, together with the Nightingale of Portsmouth, of one 
hundred tons. ^ 

The friends of Hakluyt, Robert Aldworth, and Gyles 
Elbridge, merchants of Bristol, " hearing that Jennens was 
about to break up his plantation at Monhegan, authorized 
Abraham Shurt to purchase for them the island." The dis- 
solution of this plantation " excited no little interest among 
the hamlets — ' Embryo Sovereignties,^ now dotting the New 
England coasts ; and Gov. AVinslow tooke a boat and some 
hands and went thither, learning that the plantation was to 
then break up and diverse goods to be sould." - The plunder 
of a French ship lost at Sagadahock had passed into the hands 



1 Young's Chronicle, p. 293. 

2 Thornton's Pemaquid, pp. 38, 52 — 3. 



106 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

of the fishermen wrecking her, at Monhegan and Damaris- 
cove — "Biscaie ruggs " — "a parcell of goats &c. " — all 
which made up Bradford's purchase. 

Damariscove, in the early history of the " ancient domin- 
ions of Maine," is a remarkable point. 

DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND. 

In the south-western extremity of this island, a very 
deep, narrow cove enters between bold rocks and preci})itous 
shores, opening into the island like a wedge between mount- 
ain cliffs, where a small but secure harbor is afforded for 
fishing vessels. This island, the principal of the group land- 
locking Boothbay Harbor, derives its name undoubtedly 
from its early importance as a fishing place — the '■'• namas- 
cotta^' or covet, of the aboriginal inhabitants signifying a 
" fish place." 

ANTIQUITIES THERE. 

On the south-eastern slope, which is sometimes called 
wood end, it is said the remains of an ancient fortification 
— an earth-work — were traceable ten years ago ; and lifting 
the covering of the shallow soil, a smooth rock appears, 
whereon the washing of the sea has laid bare numerous 
inscriptions, in writing apparently cut by human art in 
characters from one to four inches long, one-eiglith of an 
inch deep, and covering a surface of ten feet. ^ The local- 
ity of the inscriptions is assigned to the summit of the cliff, 
on the right of the harbor, as it is entered, by Tlios. Cun- 
ningham, U. S. Collector, Wiscasset. 

POPULOUS AND CENTRAL POINTS. 
n 
Sagadahock, Sheepscot, and Pemaquid were now the 

radiating centers to the settlement of the circumjacent 

region. 

I Dr. B. S. Cushman of Wiscasset. 



f/wW 




SETTLEMENT. 107 

SAGADAHOCK. 

From the Sagadahock, population flowed upward and 
onward, till Phipsburg, Bath, Georgetown, and Woolwich 
became populous towns. 

SHEEPSCOT . 

From Sheepscot have sprung the offshoots, Wiscasset, 
Dresden, Alna, Newcastle, Edgecomb, Westport, Boothbaj, 
and Southport. 

PEMAQUID. 

From Pemaquid have grown Bristol, Nobleboro',Damaris- 
cotta, and perhaps the more eastern towns of Waldoboro', 
Warren, Thomaston, and St. George. 

INFLUX OF POPULATION. 

The various points of occupancy, in favorable locations, 
which became the nucleus of these several towns, now 
rapidly appear in the historic scene, filling in with busy life 
and enterprise, which have beautified our landscape with 
cities, villages, hamlets, and homes of refinement and lux- 
ury. Titles had become attached to favorite localities, 
creating claims which were subjects of legal transfer, in the 
forms of deeds, charters, and patents. 

LEVETT'S visit to SHEEPSCOT. 

The mouth of the Sheepscot has been made par- 

1623. ticularly conspicuous by the narrative of Levett's 

voyage and visit to Cape Ne-wagen — the present 

towns of Boothbay and Southport^ — where nine ships fished 

at the time. 

levett's NARRATIVE. 

Says Levett, " I like it not for a plantation, for I could 
1 Me. Hist. Soc, vol. ii. p. 86. Levett's Voyage. 



108 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

see little good timber and less good ground." There he 
remained four nights, and was visited by many of the 
natives, their wives and children, — Somerset or Samosset, 
Menawormet, father of Robinhood, and Cogawesco, the 
Sagamores of Sheepscot and Casco, — were among the 
cliiefs who paid their respects to Levett, while tarrying at 
Cape Ne-wagen and exploring the Sheepscot. One Coke 
had a stage or store for truck there, with whom Levett 
formed an intimate acquaintance. It was ascertain(4d that 
the Sagamores " had some store of Beaver coats and skins," 
which they were taking to Witherage, a ship master and 
spar dealer at Pemaquid. Coke was desirovis the furs 
should not be taken out of the harbor. To aid Coke in 
securing the beaver robes, Levett sent for the Sagamores, 
giving them to understand he would " truck " with them for 
their beaver coats. The savages at first declined all over- 
tures, till Somerset " swore there should be none carried out 
of the harbor, but his cousin Levett should have all." 

Levett, thus supported, prevailed ; but two coats of beaver 
were stolen from the Indians. The Sagamores complained 
grievously. Cabins and chests were ransacked and searched ; 
but the beaver was not found. Appreciating Levett's inter- 
est, as exhibited in his efforts to recover the stolen furs, the 
magnanimous chiefs thanked him, and desired him to for- 
bear, saying the " rogues had carried them into the woods 
where he could not find them." 

The natives also informed Levett that no good place for 
trade now remained in the neighborhood, as the place he 
was in — Pemaquid and Monhcgan — was in the possession 
of others. " The next day the wind came fair," says Levett, 
" and I sailed for Quack or York with the king, queen and 
prince, bow and arrows, dog and kitten, in my boat ; his no- 
ble attendants rowing by us in their canoes." » 

On hearing that Capt. Levett was about to depart from 



SETTLEMENT. 109 

the country, the Sagamores gathered about him, among 
whom were Samosset, Cogawesco, Conway and others, and 
asked him " why he would be gone out of their country ?" 
Levett answered — " his wife would not come thither except 
he went to fetch her," The chiefs retorted — " pox on her 
hounds," and told the captain " to beat her." " But," re- 
plied Levett, " God will be angry." " Then let her alone 
and take another," returned the savages ; Samosset adding the 
additional plea, " that his new-born son and Levett's should 
be brothers," if the captain would remain, and that there 
should be '■^ mouchicke legamatche — i.e. friendship — be- 
tween them, till Tanto carried them to his wigwam " — i. e. 
till death ! These people, it would seem, had two Deities. 
" Tanto " is the god they hate, because to him is ascribed 
all their ill-fortune. When any are sick, hurt, or die, tiiey 
say — "Tanto is hoggery" — i. e. angry. Squanto is be- 
loved of them, because he is the source of all good fortune 
to them. When asked where is his abode, they say, " we 
cannot tell," and pointing up, add — " on high," but Tanto 
" far in the west ; " and no one sees either, but their Pow- 
wos or medicine men when they dream, which they do by 
placing a marten skin under their heads. 

These savages are very subtile, slow of speech and quick 
and keen of apprehension ; and when they meet a great 
talker, as an object of contempt and derision they point to 
him and say — "/te is mechecum" — i. e. a fool! Very 
aristocratic — they will hardly speak to a ordinary man, but 
point and say — " Sanops must speak to Sanops, and Saga- 
mores to Sagamores." 

They are polygamists and believe that he that hath the 
most wives is the bravest fellow ; and their wives are their 
slaves, — a feature of all barbaric life, where the influence 
of the Bible is not felt. Levett told them " it was no good 
fashion, having so many wives ; " and the chieftain replied 
by asking " how many wives King James had?" 



110 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

They were clad in skins, wearing the hair side inwards in 
winter and outwards in summer. They wear a piece of skin 
about thch' loins as a girdle ; " and between their legs goes 
another, made fast to the girdle before and behind, which 
covers their nakedness." " They go bare-headed, with long 
hair, and sometimes you shall not know the men from the 
women but by their breasts." 

When their children are born, they bind them to a board 
and set it upright, either against a tree or other place ; and 
thus do them till three months old. They are entirely na- 
ked till from five to six years of age ; and their little ones 
the parent often buries in snow, all but the face, to harden 
them, and when two years old will cast them into the sea, 
like a little dog or cat to learn to swim. 

ACQUISITION OF A TITLE TO BRISTOL. 

Fifty skins of beaver paid by Brown of New-Har- 
bor to the Pemaquid Sagamore, Sommerset, pur- 1625. 
chased the present territory of the towns of Bristol 
and Damariscotta. Edward Ashley, agent, and William 
Pierce, assistant, in right of a grant under the Muscongus 
Patent, took possession of the eastern margin of the St. 
George's river, five miles below the head of tide water. 
There they erected a truck-house, and established a trading 
post, employing five persons and a small new-made vessel 
in the trade. Thus the site of the present thrifty and popu- 
lous town of Thomaston was selected and improved. 

CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 

The state of society in these newly settled plantations was 
chiefly distinguished for its lawlessness. Every man did 
that which seemed right in his own eyes, and rapine, vio- 
lence and crime prevailed. The royal commissioners tell of 
the most unblushing immoralities, alleging that the fisher- 
men had as many shares in a woman as they did in their 



SETTLEMENT. Ill 

boats ; probably an exaggeration of a prejudiced and parti- 
zan report. 

MEASURES TO CORRECT ITS ABUSES. 

The rumor of such a state of things at length reached 
England, and moved the Plymouth company to attempt the 
reduction of society to a state of law and order, ^An admiral 
was appointed ; and Robert Gorges commissioned lieuten- 
ant general, with instructions to prevent and reform abuses 
committed by the fishermen and others, who not only fre- 
quented the coast without leave, " but when there, brought 
reproach upon the nation by their lewdness and wickedness 
among the savages, abusing their women openly, and teach- 
ing their people drunkenness, with other beastly demeanors. i 
" While the Pilgrims were struggling for life at Plymouth, 
and Conant founding Massachusetts at Cape Ann," says 
Thornton, " Pemaquid was probably the busiest place on the 
coast." 

WRECK AT BOOTHBAY HARBOR. 

A small vessel sent from Plymouth to fish, on reaching 
the harljor of Boothbay, near Damariscove, where " ships 
used to ride," met many ships there from England. While 
at anchor, a fierce storm drove the Plymouth ship ashore, 
where she was wrecked and sank, and the crew came near 
being lost. 

The ship-masters, however, aided the Plymotheans in rais- 
ing their sunken vessel by casks lashed at low water to the 
hulk. Thus floated on the beach, she was recovered, refitted, 
and did good service to her owners.^ 

ACQUISITION OF LANDED ESTATE. 

The head waters of the Sheepscothad now received a con- 

1 Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. v, p. 86, 2d series. 

2 Prince's Ch,ron., p. 145. 



112 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

siderahle accession to its population ; and it is believed that 
the Mary & John and the fly-boat Gift of God, of the Popham 
immigration, furnished original European planters here, as 
well as at the mouth of the Sagadahock, some of whose col- 
onists may have made explorations and began clearings near 
Sheepscot Falls, which subsequently grew into what was 
called the " plantation of the Sheepscot Farms' ^ Har- 
vest being ended around the margins of Plymouth Harbor, 
the full garners of the Puritans suggested a system of gain- 
ful commerce with the eastern savages ; and a sloop laden 
with corn was dispatched to the Kennebec, which returned 
with a cargo of furs of great value, at immense profit ; and 
this circumstance led to the subsequent acquisition of an 
immense landed territory on both banks of the Kennebec, 
by charter and patent rights, and the establishment of a 
trading station at Cushnoc, on its upper waters, called the 
Plymouth purchase.* 

The tide of emigration naturally flowed inland 
and up the more frequented and accessible water- 1626. 
courses to those localities most fertile and secure, as 
well as to those most favorable for native trade, and had 
now begun to set strongly in, and favorite points had 
acquired intrinsic value, and become desirable for possess- 
ion. Acquisition and transfer of titles were indeed a great 
feature of this period. 

1 Controversy Pejepscot and Plymouth Proprietors, p. 1 2. 

* Note. — " Monquine," alias Matahanada, " son of old Matawormet, 
sagamore of Kennebeck river, in consideration of two hogsheads of pro- 
visions, one of bread and one hogshead of pease, two coats of cloth, two 
gallons of wine and a bottle of strong waters," conveyed to William Brad- 
ford, Edward Winslow, Thomas Prince, Thomas Wil'ett, and "William 
Paddy, from Cusenock up to Wesserunskick, for the New Plymouth Com- 
pany. — Copy of Deed, Register's office, Lincoln Co., vol. i. p. 6. 



SETTLEMENT. 113 

THE PLYMOUTH ESTABLISHMENT AT KENNEBEC. 

The Plymothcans, allured by the profits of their 
1628. trade, sought and secured large landed interests on 
the margins of the Kennebec, covering each bank ; and 
having perfected their arrangements for occupancy, erected a 
trading house and established a post up the river, and named 
the settlement New Plymouth, where was deposited a store 
of corn and merchandise. With the natives this company 
bartered their goods for furs, and introduced the article of 
" wampum peag," — " strings and bracelets of blue and 
white periwinkle shell," — afterwards replaced with glass 
beads, which at length served the use and possessed the 
value of coin, in trade with the savages. ^ 

ALDWORTH AND ELBRIDGE AT PEMAQUID. 

The wilds of Mavooshen now began to excite the 
1631. interest and absorb the capital of land speculators in 
the Old World. Pemaquid, now the property of 
Bristol merchants — Aldworth and Elbridge — under titles 
from the President of the Council of New England, on con- 
dition that they have and will transport, and do undertake 
to transport at their own cost and charges divers persons 
into New England, and there erect and build a town and 
settle inhabitants, at once became a noted place, Abra- 
ham Slmrt, agent for the Bristol merchants, represented 
their interests there, and received the transfer of title and 
possession from Walter Neal, the agent of the Council. 

This acquisition and the conditions thereof laid the foun- 
dation for the existence and importance of Pemaquid, where 
Thomas Elbridge subsequently resided and held a court, to 
which the residents on Monhegan and Damariscove " re- 
paired and continued their fishing." ^ Thus Pemaquid 



1 Young's Chronicle, p. 14. 

2 Shurt's depo. pp. 39, 40. L. Records. 

8 



114 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

became the chief center of trade, law, and authority — a 
larger and more important settlement than Quebec, the cap- 
ital of Canada. Eighty-four ^ families besides fishermen, 
embracing a population of more than five hundred souls, 
now occupied Pemaquid and its vicinage ; and at tlie harbor 
entrance on the east margin of the Damariscotta, formed 
by Pemaquid point, four years before a fortress, whose 
walls of mud and timber trees of pine enclosed a small 
brick-built castle, for the defense of Boston Harbor, a castle 
at Pemaquid frowned over the waters of Johns Bay. 

DESCRIPTION OF PEMAQUID. 

Pemaquid, the nearest and most eligible mainland site to 
Monhegan, is a romantic and picturesque site. Imagine a 
gentle river winding its way to the sea, and gathering its 
waters into a nearly circular basin before mingling with 
those of the bay, through a passage 0116 hundred and fifty 
feet wide and many fathoms deep, — a basin rimmed and 
shut out from the sea by a spur or projection of rocks from 
the main on the west, encircling it like an arm, with a soli- 
tary clump of trees on its outmost point, and on the east 
traced by a peninsula (parallel to the main, and with which it 
is joined at the lower extremity,) flat and worn, of light and 
fertile soil, and it will afford some idea of Pemaquid harbor ; 
opposite the entrance to which on the east shore, are still to 
be seen the outlines of its fortified works. 

The west shore of this basin is a rugged, rocky eminence, 
terminating in the narrow, rocky, extended, arm-like point, 
shutting in the harbor's mouth, anciently called tlie " Barbi- 
can ;" and on this the first settlements were made. The 
peninsula, which was the site of the ancient town and for- 
tress of Pemaquid, is oval shaped, and obviously made by 
the sands and debris of the river, brought down and accu- 

1 Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 65. 



SETTLEMENT. 115 

mulated by its tides, in the rotary motion given by the 
interposing and curved shores of the Barbican jioint on 
the west, and immense projecting strata of incUned gran- 
ite forming the eastern shore. The peninsula has evi- 
dently, at some period, been entirely circumvallated with 
water, and thus separated from the main, with which it prob- 
ably connected by an artificial way. It has also been walled 
in ; the outline of its defenses can still be traced. Its 
streets were paved with pebble stones ; and many of its 
buildings were of like material. The principal street, pass- 
ing longitudinally between the extremes of this peninsula, 
north and south, was paved, and is still to be traced, though 
nearly overgrown with grass or covered with earth. The 
outlines of the fort, and the position of its tower in the 
south-westerly extreme of the peninsula, and immediately 
fronting the harbor's entrance, are in distinct detail, trace- 
able in every curve and square, amid mouldering lime and 
rock, — the fragments of its masonry. 

It is a most interesting spot, not only in its historical re- 
mains and associations, but in its physical aspect — its stern 
and rock-bound shores — its gentle curves and sunny slopes 
and level approaches from the east. 

The whole peninsula is now converted into a mowing 
field, except a small enclosed parcel, where are gathered the 
ashes of the ancient dead. 

About this devoted spot armies have gatliered like eagles 
to the carcass, and the din of war, in all its accumulated 
horrors of blood and carnage, has raged. The ships of con- 
tending nations have tinged its waters with human gore, 
and poured their iron hail in destructive broadsides upon its 
fortified places, till the ruthless storm has swept its streets, 
and crushed out at once the life and energy of its defenders. 
Here the red man, with a howl of defiance, and tlie wliite 
man, with the subdued voice of prayer, have bitten the dust 
together, amid the shrieks of forlorn women and helpless 



116 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

cliildren, when not drowned by the terrible wlioop of savage 
war. The details of the scenes here sketched we shall give 
as fully as circumstances will allow, in weaving out the 
thread of history. 

Pemaquid, Monhegan and their dependencies had now 
passed from the title of the original occupants, to the pos- 
session of two Bristol merchants. The section began to fill 
up with rapidity from a class very different from the ship-dis- 
charged and deserting seamen and fishermen. Agriculturists 
and artisans had come in ; and wealth began to accumulate. 
Abraham Jennings, an original occupant of Monhegan, had 
sold his right to the purchasers of Pemaquid. Having thus 
acquired the titles to the most desirable localities in this now 
important and attractive section, with true business tact, these 
merchants sought to turn their purchase to the most valu- 
able account, by concentrating there both trade and the tide 
of emigration. 

TRADE AT PEMAQUID. 

A brisk trade had opened between the colonists of Plym- 
outh and the settlements within the ancient dominions of 
Maine, where provisions, at first sought to supply the Mas- 
sachusetts settlers, were finally sent in exchange for furs. 
Corn by the shallop load, within six years of its settlement, 
was sent from Plymouth up the Kennebec river, for which 
beaver skins and other furs were traded. 

As centers of trade, money or valuable furs and mer- 
chandise, accumulated at Pemaquid and Monhegan ; and 
this circumstance, together with their isolated position, ex- 
posed them to plunder. The commercial enterprise of the 
period had spawned the ocean with sea-faring life ; and 
much of it developed in lawlessness, freebooting and pira- 
cy. Pemaquid had become a place of so much importance, 

I Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 65. 



SETTLEMENT. 117 

that, as a measure of safety, fortifications were erect- 1631. 
ed to cover the entrance to its harbor.^ 

Allerton, a Plymouth renegade, early this year, 
"set up a company of base fellows,"^ and made 1632. 
them traders along the coast, at Kennebec with other 
places east. The French seized the shallop of Dixy Bull, 
one of these fellows, greedy of illicit trade, and made it a 
prize. Bull, gathering to himself a companionship of kin- 
dred spirits, hoisted the black flag, and went prowling over 
the waters of the main, as the first New England pirate. 
He captured several vessels at sea, and plundered the plant- 
ers on shore. 

The rumors of piracy disturbed the planters all along the 
coast ; and in the west, Hilton and Neal, from Piscataqua, 
equipped four pinnaces and shallops, enrolled a crew of for- 
ty men, and sailed for Pemaquid. Arrived there, for four 
weeks wind-bound, this naval force — these battle ships, the 
earliest afloat on the waters of New England — rode at 
anchor in Pemaquid harbor. 

LAWLESSNESS OP THE PLACE. 

The inhabitants of Pemaquid, many of whom were 
strangers, speculators, and transient persons, with a consid- 
erable admixture of sea-faring adventurers, were without a 
local government. Lawlessness overrode all order, a fea- 
ture of all new settled places — the product of commercial 
adventure. 

The town, therefore, became much disturbed by scenes of 
rapine and plunder. Do Bidl, with an English crew of free- 
booters, like birds of prey, lighted on the place and plun- 
dered its shipping. 

DE BULL, THE PIRATE. 

Dixy Bull and his followers were resisted in their descent 

1 Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 65. 

2 Thornton's Pemaquid. 



118 ■ ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

on Pemaquid, and a ringleader was shot from the palisade. 
Their success gave them boldness. Though temperate in 
the use of intoxicating drink, their sense of moral responsi- 
bility was deadened by infidel sentiments. " When others 
have prayers," said they, " we will have a story or a song." 
This bandit crew hovered around the new settlements on 
the coast, a year or thereabouts, till the inhabitants were 
aroused by their atrocities — the excitement became so great 
against them that four vessels were armed and manned, and 
the pirates pursued till driven out of the eastern waters. 
Dixy Bull was subsequently brought to justice in England, 
and his crew were scattered forever. Shurt was still the 
chief man of the East, whose intelligence, integrity, and 
prudence entitled him to the respect and esteem of the 
whole community ; and under his administration the inter- 
ests of the colony and its patrons throve. 

shurt's perils in the piscataqua. 

An untoward event came near depriving Pemaquid 
1633. plantation of the life and services of Abraham Shurt, 
the agent of the proprietors and a magistrate of the 
peace. With Capt. Wright he embarked in June for Bos- 
ton. On nearing the harbor of Piscataqua, as they were 
entering the river's mouth, a seaman, addicted to smoking, in 
attempting to light a pipe of tobacco, fired a cask of pow- 
der. The vessel was blown to atoms, and the reckless sailor 
was afterward seen only in the mangled and scattered re- 
mains of his blackened body. The others escaped with their 
lives, and Shurt among them. 

imprudence of the settlers. 

The still infant settlements at Pemaquid, Sheepscot, and 
Sagadahock, though striking their roots and spreading their 
branches abroad, were made to feel the force of many a 
storm, which now began to brood in the savage wilds about 



SETTLEMENT. 119 

them. A brisk and profitable trade with the peaceful wild 
men of this region had begotten a presumptuous security — 
a recklessness and temerity of intercourse — a wantonness 
of gain, sure to disturb amicable relationship. 

NAMES OP EARLY PLANTATIONS AND LOCATIONS. 

From the settlements at Pemaquid, thrifty off- 
shoots had started along the Damariscotta ; at Saga- 1634. 
dahock, on the islands to the eastward adjoining ; and 
upon the banks of the Sheepscot, " were many scattered 
planters." Above Wiscasset, the fertile water-courses and 
bottoms of this considerable river had already a population 
of fifty families, numbering probably some two hundred 
souls. " Newtown," on the southern extreme of the Arrow- 
sic Island, had already begun its existence. At the entrance 
of the Kennebec into the sea, — at Richmond's landing, — 
near the junction of Eastern river with the waters of the 
Kennebec, — and the site of our capital — trading houses 
were opened, and in full and profitable operation, within 
thirty years after Popham's decease at the mouth of the 
Kennebec. The St. George's river had at this early date 
become attractive to lumber-men, on account of its mighty 
bordering forests and stately spar timber. Commerce sent 
her ships thither for masts, among which the ship Hercules 
of Dover loaded there. 

MURDER AT KENNEBEC. 

The Plymotheans, impatient of competition for the profits 
of their newly opened trade on the Kennebec waters, became 
involved in a quarrel with an agent of " Lord Say and 
Brook," the commander of whose vessel entered these 
waters for trade with the natives. Capt. Hocking forced 
his way up the river, and " because he would not come 
down again," three men were sent in a canoe to cut his 
cables. On cutting one, Hocking presented and threatened 



120 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

to shoot him who should cut the other. " Do it if you 
dare," said the boatman, and lifted his axe for the fatal 
sundering stroke, when Hocking shot him dead. The exas- 
perated Plymotheans, from their pinnace riding near, fired 
on Hocking in return, who fell. These homicides originated 
the reproachful adage, that " they cut one another's throats 
for beaver," ^ on the Kennebec. 

" A worthy gun-smith,^ of Bristol city, in England 
1638. — a young man, found employment at his trade at 
Pemaquid." During the excitement for acquiring 
landed estate, which the influx of population created, and in 
the consequent migratory movements of the population, to 
secure eligible locations, the father of "Wm. Phips sought a 
new home and established his plantation on a peninsular 
margin of the Sheepscot waters, forming the eastern and 
northern boundaries of Hock-omock bay at the lower outlet 
of " Monseag " — the meaning of which would seem to be 
the place of ^'island-waters,''^ a native term — in the south- 
eastern extreme of Woolwich, near which a hamlet grew 
up where a ship was built by his distinguished son. At this 
point, the great inland water-way from Pemaquid to 
the Kennebec reaches a plateau, whose waters are 
broached by the Nequaseag passage into Kennebec on the 
west, and the Goose rock entrance below, and Monseag passage 
by way of Wiscasset above, which was, in early days, de- 
scribed under the name of " Cross River." Along the mar- 
gins of this water way, the earliest white settlers took up 
residence and made their plantations, dotting with their 
clearings the whole line of travel from Pemaquid to Kenne- 
bec. Phips, Hammond, Brown, and Bateman occupied the 
more conspicuous points. 

1 Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. v. p. 167, 2d series. 

2 Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 91. 



SETTLEMENT. 121 

ORIGINAL PURCHASE OP WOOLWICH. 

A hogshead of corn and thirty pumpkins^ paid 
the vahie of a title to the town of Woolwich, " a seat 1639. 
or savage-homestead consisting of one Wigwam or 
Indian house," called Nequaseg, (meaning the clear-water- 
place residence of the native Sagamore, Moiv-ho-ti-wormet,') 
to John Brown and Edward Bateman, planters of Femaquid. 

Less than thirty years had gone by, the site of this town 
passing from Brown to Bateman, and from Bateman to Cole, 
when Cole and James Smith were dwellers in the town of 
Woolwich, on the banks of a streamlet draining the mead- 
ows above, and which emptied the superfluous waters over a 
rocky declivity into a shallow bay, latterly discharging into 
the Kennebec opposite Bath. 

ROBIN-HOOD. 

A deep narrow inlet filling a considerable indentation, 
southward into the heart of Georgetown, where the waters 
of Sheepscot Bay receive those of the " by river," (Sasanoa?) 
the thoroughfare from Sheepscot to Bath — still bears the 
name of Robinhood's cove ; and was probably a favorite resi- 

1 Register's Office, Lincoln Co., Lib. 1, p. 12. 

"Mow-ho-tiwormet, son of Mony-wormet, deceased, conveyed to Edward 
Bateman and John Brown, lately of Pemaquid, planters, a seat or place, 
commonly called Nequaset, lying between the bounds of Sn-ca-di-ock river 
on the west and Shepscooke river on the east, and the river commonly 
called Nequaseg on the south-west, with one wigwam, or Indian house, for 
divers causes and considerations and especially for one hogshead of corn 
and thirty pumpkins." 

Nov. 1, 1639. Signed with the mark and signum of Robinhood. 

" Signum 
of 

MOWHOTIWORMET 

or 
Robinhood." 




122 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

deuce of the great native cliieftain, from whom is derived 
most of our lauded titles, on the lower waters of the ancient 
" Shepscooke ; " and who ruled over, and owned as the orig- 
inal native lord, a territory embracing Bootlibay harbor on 
the south-east, the ancient Cape Newagen of Ijcvett ; the 
bordering territory on the ancient Sacadiock, westward ; and 
to Wiscasset above. 

The father of this chieftain was known to Capt. Levett, 
the voyager, and met him at Cape Newagen fii'teen years 
before witli Somarset, of Pemaquid, with whom he must 
have been a cotemporary. Ma-na-wormet, Cog-a-wesco and 
Somarset, as we have heretofore seen, all were with Levett, 
at Cape Newagen ; and were undoubtedly cotemporary chief- 
tains, earliest known to the earliest European settlers of the 
" ancient Dominions of Maine." 

3Ioiv-ho-ti-vjonnet, the son of deceased Mony-wormet Da- 
marian of Sevvall's history, (the Ramegin of Drake's) nick- 
named Robinhood by the English settlers of the Sheepscot, 
appears to have been well disposed to the whites. 

EXPORT OF CATTLE. 

The colonists of Massachusetts constantly ex- 
1640. tended their trade with the east ; and from the furs 
and peltries gathered of the natives in exchange for 
corn, attention was turned to the import of neat cattle from 
Pemaquid. Joseph Grafton ^ in a forty-ton vessel sailed 
from Salem to Pemaquid, where shipping twenty cows and 
oxen, he returned in four days. 

Longer settled and more populous, the raising of stock in 
the pastures of Pemaquid had created an excess and opened 
a source of gainful traffic — a fact, which speaks well for the 
enterprise and thrift of the early colonists in the east, and 



lAnnals of Salem, p. 528. 



SETTLEMENT. 125 

illustrates their agricultural character and habits and taste, 
in favorable contrast with the trading propensities of the Mas- 
sachusetts colonists. 

CONDITION OF THE SETTLEMENTS. 

Eight men bound to Pemaquid embarked at Pis- 
cataqua in the winter of this year ; but driven into 1641. 
Monhegan by a storm, sheltered themselves in the 
unoccupied cabins of the fishermen till rescued ; where four 
of their number perished. The general character of the 
population was still darkly shaded — made up " largely of 
fishermen." Josselyn classifies the population in a 
period a little subsequent to this date, " as magistrates, 
husbandmen and fishermen. Of the magistrates, some be 
Royalists, the rest perverse-spirits, the like are the planters 
and fishers, of which some be planters and fishers both — 
others mere fishers. There are but few hand-craftsmen 
and no shopkeepers, English goods being kept by Massachu- 
setts merchants, here and there on the coast, at a profit of 
cent per cent, in exchange for fish. 

They have a custom of taking tobacco, sleeping at noon, 
sitting long at meals, sometimes four times a day. Every 
Shallop has four fishermen, a master, a midship-man and a 
fore-mast-man, and a shore-man ; who washes it out of the 
salt and dries it upon hurdles, pitcht upon stakes, breast 
high and tends to the cookery; and often tliey share eight to 
nine pound a man, which doth them but little good, for then 
comes in a walking tavern, — a Bark laden with the rich 
blood of the grape." We may judge somewhat correctly of 
the recklessness of habits among settlers, and it is a wonder 
more accidents did not occur. 

FIRST DEATH BY DROWNING. 

The earliest recorded accidental drowning occurred 
in the waters of the Kennebec in September of this 1646. 



124 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

date, in the person of William Waldron. This gentle- 
man was cultivated in his mind and manners, and held the 
office of Clerk of Courts in Saco, under Gorges' jurisdiction. 
For intemperance, he had become an ex-communicant from 
the church in Dover, and moved his residence into Maine, 
and was drowned in crossing the Kennebec. Biit the de- 
sire to acquire permanent homes and a title in the soil 
extended itself among the fishermen, as well as among the 
artisans, agriculturists, and colonial population of Maine. 

THE NAME OP OUR STATE. 

With great energy of purpose, untiring perse ver- 
1647. ance, and from motives benevolent and patriotic — 
not to deny the existence of those more latent which 
originate in the selfishness of the human heart. Sir Ferdi- 
nando Gorges prosecuted schemes of colonization, till through 
the favor of Charles I. of England, he secured a provin- 
cial charter, by which the wilds of North-Eastern America 
were constituted a body politic to become endowed with all 
the forms and forces of civil society ; and which was desig- 
nated the province of " Maine." 

It was thus the protege of the indefatigable Gorges found 
a name, in the royal State paper of April 3, 1639, which 
has become the pass-word of authority, and is the title of 
our State to this day. Having effectually excited public 
interest in opening and developing its resources, and started 
a series of colonial movements for the enlargement of its 
population, till he had given to our State a name, Gorges 
died, without reaping any considerable benefit, other than 
empty titles, as a reward for his labors and sacrifices. 

JOHN Parker's settlement. 

A title to the great island, on the east side and 

1649. forming the east bank of the ancient Sagadahock, 

(and probably the ancient " island of Sagadahock,") 



SETTLEMENT. 125 

of which, " Sebenoa," the native chieftain, who, on meeting 
Capt. Gilbert, of Popliam's colony, proclaimed himself the 
" lord," was now acquired by John Parker. At the date of 
the purchase, the island went by name of Res-kcagan. The 
fisherman, John Parker, of Boston, withhi thirty years of 
Popliam's colonial adventures at the mouth of the Kenne- 
bec, engaged in the fisheries between there and Monhegan; 
and is said to have occupied the southern extreme of this is- 
land, where are still to be seen the remains of an ancient 
town. 1 

THE ORIGINAL PURCHASE OF WESTPORT. 

" Jeremy Squam," an island in the Sheepscot, now the 
town of Wcstport, the aboriginal name of which seems to 
have been " the island of Jeremy, who lives by the water, 
meaning the island of water creeks," ^ became the prop- 
erty of John Richards, who, with a Thomas Webber, lived 
on the upper end of Res-keagan or Parker's island opposite, 
and who purchased it of the Sagamore Damarine or Robin- 
hood. From the settlement of Parker, grew near the sea- 
side the ancient " New Town ; " while, from the Popham 
site, the colony revived by Dermer, or at the elbow, on 
the headland, the site of the ancient church where 
the Kennebec turns into " Long Reach," grew up a 
hamlet on the western margin of the river, together with 
the plantations of Merry Meeting above. 

BIRTH PLACE OF WILLIAM PHIPS. 

Not far from Wiscasset on the lower margin of 
Monseag Bay, near the mouth of a rivulet of the 1650. 
same name, a peninsula of arable land strikes out 
from the south-eastern extreme of the purchase of Bate- 

1 Williamson, vol. i, p. 53. Me. H. Col., vol ii, p. 192. 

2 Hon. S. Parsons. 



126 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

man and Brown (Woolwich) into a body of water, formed 
by the junction of the waters of the bay above in their pas- 
sage to the sea, with those flowing from Sheepscot Bay be- 
low into tlie Kennebec, opposite the city of Bath. 

This body of water encircling the base of a mountainous 
headland of nearly perpendicular steeps and cliffs, called 
Hockomock, where it receives, as a reservoir, the waters of 
three tides, opens into an expanse, or magnificent basin ; 
from the indented rim of which, as well as through its 
center, wind navigable channels. 

Bold shores, precipitous headlands, picturesque islands, 
low extended land-falls and fertile margins, give here a land- 
scape of surpassing beauty. 

WILLIAM PHIPS, THE SHIP BUILDER. 

On this peninsula, commanding this lovely scene of land 
and water, in the direct track of the great inland thorough- 
fare between Pemaquid and Kennebec, (and near to the 
rock, which ancient tradition affirms, has turned, from time 
immemorial, " three times round whenever it hears the 
cock crow," rising from the deep like a hay-stack at the 
point, where the salt sea-water meets and mingles with the 
fresh) was born on the 2d of February, William Pliips. — 
To this peninsula, as the precise locality of his birth, tradi- 
tion to this day points the traveler, and calls it " Phips' 
point." Near his birth place, in the head of the cove made 
by the point on one side and Hockomock on tlie other, grew 
up a hamlet. This son of Sheepscot subsequently became 
one of the most renowned worthies of New England ; whose 
mother was one of its most noted matrons; who, it is said, 
gave to her country twenty-one sons and five daughters. — 
William learned the trade of ship-wright. He then learned 
to read and write, in Boston. In Boston, he contracted to 



SETTLEMENT. 127 

build a ship on the Sheepscot — she was built and launched 
successfully. 

PHIPS' ADVENTUEES. 

He had provided for this ship a cargo of lumber, 
which he had nearly completed, when disturbed by- 
Indian hostilities, the settlers fled in her to Boston, and thus 
escaped the savage tomahawk. 

A Spanish silver-laden galleon, from the mines of Peru, 
had been wrecked on the Bahamas. Phips fitted out an ex 
pedition, found the sunken hulk, and therefrom raised 
"thirty-two tons of silver, a bushel of pieces of eight, and 
vast riches of pearls and jewels ; in value, all amounting to 
three hundred thousand pounds sterling." 

" Phips' ship-yard was on or near the Sheepscot waters not 
far from his birth place, according to the most authentic tra- 
dition, and not at the Sheepscot farms," ^ in Newcastle. 
Phips' wealth procured for him a knight-hood ; and he be- 
came invested with the authority of Governor of Massachu- 
setts, which office he filled with dignity and executed with 
success. 

POPULATION AND STAPLES OF TRADE. 

At the period of the birth of Phips, a considerable com- 
munity had reared their cabins along the margins of the 
Sheepscot and Damariscotta, which had acquired something 
of the permanence and value of homes. Furs, fish, and 
lumber were the great staples of trade. The noble pine — 
the growth of centuries — the stately spruce, sufficiently 
large for masts and spars, to ships of war, towering above all 
the surrounding forests, covered the river banks and invited 
the sturdy woodman's axe. Hence the deep waters of the 



1 Hon. S. Parsons, Greenleaf s act. — Greenleaf, an early resident on 
Oak island. 



128 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

Sheepscot, with the magnificent harbor of Boothhay at its 
mouth, attracted artisans, ship-wrights, carpenters, and com- 
merce, as well as fur traders and fishermen ; while the fer- 
tile bottoms at and about the upper Sheepscot fringed with 
vast meadows of salt marsh, no less powerfully drew thither 
early agriculturists. It is estimated five hundred souls had 
their homes on and about the Sagadahock, Sheepscot, and 
Damariscotta at this time. 

" TRAVEL." 

The water-courses were the highways of travel. Hence 
the river banks were first occupied by settlers. This solves 
the problem of ancient ruins and remains of long-forgotten 
homes, everywhere found in the cellars, brick, and pottery 
along the eastern shores of the Sheepscot ; of which the 
author has himself visited five or six within a distance of 
less than two miles. 

TRANSFER OF TITLES. 

It was at this period the second-hand titles to landed 
estate were made, out of which, confusion, litigation, and 
much wrong resulted. " The Pemaquid patent was resolved 
into what afterward became known as the Drowne claim," 
and grievously oppressed and disquieted the citizens of 
Bristol, Nobleboro', and part of Newcastle. One of the 
sons of tlie firm of Aldworth and Elbridge became the pos- 
sessor of its title to the Pemaquid purchase. This son mort- 
gaged Monhegan and Damariscove to one Russel, who, with 
a Mr. Davison, purchased the balance. Russel sold out to 
Davison ; and one of Davison's daughters married Shem 
Drowne. The " Brown right " was derived from the con- 
veyance of the sagamore Somerset to John Brown, who 
resided near to Pemaquid, at New Harbor. These facts 
indicate such an increase of population as to render the soil 
valuable as an acquisition in the estimation of the early 



SETTLEMENT. 129 

planters ; and that their character had undergone a change 
from that of an adventurous cast to that of a stable, indus- 
trious, and home-like people, who were seeking the comforts 
of life in the products of the soil rather than in the uncer- 
tain issues of trade and speculation. It is to be presumed 
tliat thrift now began to appear, as the settlements had 
reached that stage of development when the stubbornness 
of nature had been subdued, and the embarrassments of the 
unbroken soil so far overcome as to yield profitable returns 
in the comforts and luxuries of life. 

So far as the opening of the channels of industry, and 
the establishment of a liome were concerned, the settlements 
had become developed ; but the full organization of society, 
in the local application of law and order, was yet incomplete. 

JOHN MASON, SHEEPSCOT PROPKIETOR. 

A distinguished name among the settlers and orig- 
inal proprietors of Sheepscot was John Mason. 1652. 
From Damarin by purchase he had acquired a title 
to a considerable body of land, commencing at Sheepscot 
falls, running easterly, and embracing the " Great Neck." 
By the claim of Stephen Calef, exhibited before the Com- 
missioners, Mason's purchase extended from Sheepscot falls 
in Newcastle southward and eastward to a freshet called 
"Oven's Mouth," — a well known inlet of the waters of Sheep- 
scot river, opening eastward and separating between the 
southern boundary of Edgecomb and the northern boundary 
of Boothbay, caused by a narrow gorge between rocks and 
precipitous cliffs, through which the tide ebbs and flows with 
a deep and rapid current, to fill and empty a shallow inte- 
rior basin, receiving the waters of a considerable fresh water 
pond from Boothbay on the south, and of "Wild-cat Meadow" 
on the north-east, — the margins of which rise in a gentle 
slope or swell of light and fertile soil, which must have beea 

9 



130 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

covered in early days with a heavy growth of maple, pump- 
kin pines, and spar timber. 

Mason must therefore have owned originally the banks of 
the Sheepscot in the town of Edgecomb ; and the Sheepscot 
" Great Neck " must have been the peninsula beginning at 
Sheepscot falls on the north, and terminating at " Oven's 
Mouth," between the Sheepscot and Cross rivers, on the 
south, a section some five miles long by a mile and a half 
broad. 

CIVIL CONDITION OF SETTLEMENTS. 

As before stated, except the municipal administration at 
Pemaquid, at this period no legal organization, no body pol- 
itic, no application of law had been made to the settlements 
within the ancient dominions of Maine. True, " rules and 
regulations of a stringent character " for governing their 
intercourse with the natives had been applied to the settlers 
on the Kennebec, within the territory of the Plymouth colony. 
Notwithstanding an arrangement had been made between 
the Kennebec sagamores and settlers there to establish a 
court in which all complaints should be heard, (by the sag- 
amores, if the natives were in fault, and by the court, if the 
settlers were in the wrong), evil complications had grown 
up between the settlers and savages, as well as among the 
settlers themselves. 

ORGANIZATION OF A COURT AT MERRY MEETING. 

At the house of Thomas Ashley, a resident at 
1654. " Merry Meeting," " the English inhabiting upon 
May 23. and near to the river commonly called the Kenne- 
H)ec, who, by their paucity and fewness of numbers 
and their remoteness, have not hitherto enjoyed the benefit 
of government, ^ for the purpose of settling a government 

1 M. IL CoU. vol. u, pp. 193—4. 



SETTLEMENT. 131. 

upon the said river of Kennebec," in pursuance of a sum- 
mons and warrant issued to the Marshal of New Plymouth, 
requiring the inhabitants on said river to make their personal 
appearance, said inhabitants " did generally assemble," viz : 
Thomas Pnrchase, residing on the southwesterly margin of 
the bay at the " foot ^ of the falls," where the Androscoggin 
enters, — John Stone, Thomas Ashley, John Richards of 
Jeremy Squam and Arrowsic, James Smith, William James, 
Thomas Parker, residing at the mouth of the river, together 
with John Parker on the southern extreme of the island of 
the same name, and whose hamlet was the nucleus of the 
ancient " New ^ Town," a settlement or village which there 
arose ; John White, John Brown, resident at Nequasset, 
William Davis, Thomas Webber, Thomas Atkins, residing 
at the mouth of the river on the west margin, James Coale, 
Edmund Hughes, Alex. Thwait, residing at Winnegance 
near Long Reach. This assemblage of the pioneer settlers 
was sworn to faithfulness to government and to one another 
in the administration of law and regulations applicable to 
their state and circumstances. The common law was rec- 
ognized as binding ; and the reparation of its wrongs was 
provided for. Drunkenness was prohibited ; and the sale of 
intoxicating drink to the natives was forbidden under pen- 
alties. Trade was regulated with the Indians — trial by 
jury secured — Purchase was appointed as presiding justice, 
and Ashley was chosen constable — when the assembly 
adjourned to meet in court at the same place on the year 
ensuing. 

PRICE OP THE PURCHASE OP BRISTOL. 

John Brown, the son of John Brown of New Har- 
bor, and the orighial settler, who by his interest with 1654. 
the chieftain Somarset, the native lord of the soil, 

1 John McKeen, Esq. Me. Hist. Coll., vol. iii. 

2 1668, Clark and Lake laid out a town on the south side of Arrowsic 
in ten acre lots. Me. H. Coll., p. 192. 



J.32 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

occupied and became the cliief proprietor of the town of 
Bristol, " for fifty skins of beaver," ^ now resided on what 
was assumed to be his fatlier's land at Damariscotta, at the 
lower or salt water falls, on the east margin at the point, — 
the site of Damariscotta village. 

HAMLETS OF BROWN AND PHILIPS. 

His residence was nearly opposite the site of the house of 
Jas. Smith, the son-in-law of Walter Philips, who lived on the 
west margin of these falls ; while Robert Scott occupied a 
plantation above Brown's on the same side of the river, and 
opposite Taylor's, the neighbor of Walter Philips. Brown 
and his neighbors were forced to flee witli Philips, during 
the outbreak of the savages in the first Indian war ; at which 
time Walter Philips, James Smith, and John Taylor, on the 
west margin of the Damariscotta at the lower falls, and 
John Brown, Jr., and Robert Scott on the east were the 
sole residents where the villages of Newcastle and Damaris- 
cotta now stand. ^ 

CLARK AND LAKE. 

Clark and Lake of Boston having purchased Ar- 
1658. rowsic Island, (the land of rest amid the waters — 
or quiet-water land), on the southern extreme laid 
out a town in ten-acre lots, intersected at right angles with 
streets of ample width. Major Clark and Capt. Lake were 
Boston merchants ; and on the site of the new town erected 
a warehouse, several large dwelling-houses, and many other 
buildings, together with a fort near the water-side. Many 
immigrants had here established their homes. ^ 



1 Commlss. Reports. 

2 Deed from Samasset, L. R. 

3 Hubbard, p. 247. 



SETTLEMENT. - 133 

PURCHASE PRICE OF THE TOWN OP PHIPSBURG. 

John Parker, not satisfied with the acquisition 
of his Island territory, now infected with tlie 1659. 

spirit of land speculation, so rife in the wilds of June 14. 
Maine, for the consideration of " one beaver skin 
and the yearly rent of one bushel of corn and a quart of 
liquor to be paid unto Robinhood, or his heirs forever, at or 
before every ( Christmas) 25th ^ day of December, at the 
dwelling house of said Parker," (reserving to himself and 
heirs the right to fish, fowl, and hunt — also to set otter 
traps without molestation) acquired a possessory right in a 
tract of land on the " west side of Sagadahoc Piver," begin- 
ning at the " high head," six miles up to Winnegance 
Creek, and southwestwardly unto the eastern part of Casco 
Bay, — embracing the principal portion of the territory of the 
present town of Phipsburg, — in presence of Henry Jocelyn, 
Richard R. Foxwell, and Roger Spencer. In the meanwhile 
trouble had grown up between the natives and pioneers of 
the Kennebec. In the progress of differences, violence 
had been developed — " some of the savages having been 
killed — some carried away — and their hunting interrupted, 
and the trade in furs depreciated." These circumstances, 
evils of the lawless state of society, at length arrested the 
legislative attention, ^ and acts were passed relating thereto, 
for the restraint of lawlessness in trade, and regulating 
intercourse with the native population. 

A fort had also been constructed on " Stinson's 
Point," near the margins of Hockomock Bay, where 1660. 
a trading establishment had grown up under the 
enterprise of Hammond, an Indian " truck master," who 
had selected a position for his traffic on this great inland 



1 Original paper, in archives of M. H. Soc. MSS. Files, Me. H. Soc. 
archives. 

2 Pejepscot and Plymouth controversy, p. 40. 



134 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

thoroughfare from the East. At this point there exist the 
remains of a very ancient and considerable settlement ; for 
on the margins of " Spring Cove," within forty years have 
been traced very considerable ruins and pavements of* brick 
work. 

ORIGINAL DEED OF THE PURCHASE OF BATH. 

'■'■ Robert Gulch's Deed from severall Sagamoors for Land in Kennebeck 
River — May 2dth 16G0. 

"This Indenture made this twenty ninth of May 1660 Between 
Robin Hoode alias Rawmeagon Terruniquin "W esomonascoa Scawque 
Abumheanenoon y' : one party & Robert Gntch on y" other party witness- 
eth y' we }•• above s* Robin Hoode alias Rawmeagon Wesomonascoe & 
Terumquin Sagamores and we y° Rest above mentioned for divers consid- 
erations to theirunto moveing have given granted & delivered over & by 
these presents Do give grant & deliver over & forever alinese quit Claime 
from unto y' s* Robert Gutch his heirs Exec : administrators & assignes to 
our selves — our heirs Exec" administrators & assignes all y' tract of Land 
lying and being in Kenebecke River and Right over against tuesslcke 
y' Beginning of y* Lower part of y' Bounds Thereof. Being a Cove Run- 
ning by y° upper Side of a point having Som Rocks lying a little from 
y' s"* point into y* s* River & from y' s* Cove to run upwards by y° waters 
Side — towards James Smiths unto a point and Being Right over against 
winslows Rock Commonly known and Called by y' name together with all 
y' woods underwood & all other previledges their unto beloning as also 
y* one half of all y" meadow y' Either is or may be made and lyeth within 
y' Land from y' waters Side part behind y° aboves* tract of Land. & a 
part Behind a tract of Land granted unto Alexander Thwait & lyeth near 
a Little pond & further y^ aboves* Sagamores and we y' rest abovenamed 
have also Given granted & delivered over half y" meadow y' is and may be 
made by y' Rivers Sides commonly known and called by y' name of AVen- 
nigansege all w""" aboves'^ tract of Land to Run into y" Land Three Miles 
To have ^- To hold to him y° s* Robert Gutch his heirs Exec" & adminis- 
trators & assignes y" aboves'^ tract of Land with y' privileges, aboves'^ as al- 
so all hawking hunting fishing &c. forever without any moUestations or 
filter demand whatsoever and hereby do bind ourselves our heirs Exec" Ad- 
ministrators & assignes forever any more from this day forward to make 
any more Claime Challinge or pretence, of tittle unto y' aboves Tract of 
Land and to maintain this against all other Claimes Tittles Challinges 



settlement. 135 

gutch's hamlet on long reach. 

Rev. Robert Gutch, a dweller on Sagadahock west 
bank, an emigrant from Salem, purchased of several 1661. 
Sagamores, among whom was Mow-ho-ti-wormet, the 
present site of the city of Bath, which he occupied as a 
plantation. " Long Reach " was the primitive name of the 
city. Some twenty families resided on the west shore of the 
Sagadahock at this date. Robert Gutch, " a man of God " 
to the pioneer inhabitants and fishermen of Sagadahock, 
was drowned, probably while prosecuting his labors on some 
missionary tour, it may be at remote stations from his home, 
over the water, leaving four daughters. His plantation must 
have been a central and probably a populous point, 
at the Reach, when Walter Philips, of Damaris- Feb. 15. 
cotta, acquired from the savages" Gosle" and Erie 
Dugles a guarantee of peaceable possession and enjoyment 
of a body of land " beginning at the lower end of the salt 
pond at Damariscotty, called Ped-coke-gowake — meaning the 
place of thunder, so tending right over to Cavesisix river. 



and Intrests -whatsoever. In witness whereof we y° aboves* parties. Saga- 
mores and we y' rest of y° aboves* Indians have hereunto set our hands & 
Seals y' day and year above written. 

" Sealed Signed & Delivered in y» " The Marke X Robin Hoode 
presence of us Alexander Thwat M " The Marke >< Terrumquin 
Mary Webber ><! John Verine ><, " The Marke X Weasomanascoe 
Alexander Tressell. " The Marke X Scawque 

" The Marke X Abunhamen 

" Robin Hoode and Terrumquin acknowledged this to be their Act and 
Deed, before me Nicholas Renallds Jus. Peace 

" A true Coppy of this deede above written transcribed out of y' origi- 
nal and theirwith compared this 27 October 67 P Edw : Richworth Re- 
corder. 

" Vera Copla as of Record Exm : Jos. Hamond Reg." 



136 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

due west north west,"^ — undoubtedly an aboriginal name of 
some branch of the Sheepscot. 

DEATH OP ROBERT GUTCH. 

The Rev. Robert Gutch,^ the original proprietor and one 
of the first settlers of the city of Bath, resided on the prem- 
ises near the present abode of Levi Houghton, in that 
city, for seventeen years. That he was a " preacher to the 
fishermen," and had " been drowned at an early date," 
(1679), is the only record of his life, labors, and end, history 
has left us ; and for this we are indebted to tradition. 

At the date of his death, at Whisgig — or " Whisgeag " — 
lived Edward Cammel ; and near the same time at Winne- 
gance dwelt Alexander Thwoit. It is probable that this 
hamlet escaped the general conflagration and massacre of 
the savages, who sacked the Arrowsic towns in King Philip's 
war. It is possible, as he was no " truck-master," no mili- 
tary chieftain, no man conspicuous in the community, except 
as a " servant of the most high God," and in no way obnox- 
ious to savage resentment, that he may have lived there 
unmolested. His life and character may have been a pro- 
tection to himself and hamlet, because they brought him 
within the circle of well-known superstitious fears and vene- 
ration of savage men. At any rate, there is no record of 
any slaughter and burning, assaults and barbarities, at or 
near the abode of this " holy man of old," and whicli, fol- 
lowing the usual laws of aggregation, must have made the 
nucleus of a village, as a center of missionary labor. 

Richard Paddishall, (Pates-hall, who afterwards was shot 
at the Barbican near Pemaquid ?), a coaster by occupation, 
planted an island (opposite Butler's cove) in the Kennebec, 
on which he lived for many years. It was an ancestral pos- 

1 Commiss. Reports, p. 13. 

2 Sewall's History of Bath. 



SETTLEMENT. 137 

session, his father having lived there before him, and was called 
" Paddishall's island." This island, mentioned as the place 
of rendezvous of the several tribes at a conference in George- 
town, must have been on the lower waters of the Sagadahoc, 
and nearly opposite the Watts settlement at Butler's cove, 
on the lower end of Arrowsic. Paddishall subsquently re- 
moved his family to Pemaquid,^ where he was slain. 

On Damariscove, Trick, Ilunnewell, Soward, and Richard 
Reading were old inhabitants, where seven boats fished ^ at 
this date. 

Walter Philips must have been an original settler at 
Damariscotta, on the Newcastle side of the village, and the 
earliest of whom we have any record. When he went in 
and planted at " Ped-coke-go-wake," the natives only were 
his neighbors. Philips first settled at a point on the river 
below, called " Winnagane :" — meaning the portage, — prob- 
ably at Hodgdon's Mills, the portage from Pemaquid to the 
harbor, from whence he removed to Ped-coke-go-wake above, 
occupied the hill and point below the falls, and cleared and 
planted an orchard, making great improvements. 

The possessions of Philips at " Ped-coke-go-wake " em- 
braced the carrying place, which the natives used in passing- 
over to a branch of tlie Sheepscot ; and he opened a cart-path, 
(the route of the present highway) along the trail of this car- 
rying place, between the proximate tide-waters of the Dama- 
riscotta and Sheepscot, whose branch was called " Cavesisix 
river." 

After Philips had been driven off from his plantation by 
savage violence, " escaping," we are told, " only with his life, 
and with the loss of all his goods," the remains of his dwell- 
ing, chimney still standing — the orchard in bearing — soli- 
tary monuments of former thrift and opulence — eloquent 

1 John Cook's testimony, Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 105. 



138 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

ruins of pioneer life — were seen for many years. During the 
desolation of the next generation, consequent on the ravages 
of savage barbarities, apples were gathered from the orchards 
of Philips here by the dwellers at Pemaquid below. The 
ruins and chimney remaining, marked the site of the pio- 
neer home of Philips, long after his departure and decease. 
He appears to have been an intelligent and thrifty and pub- 
lic spirited planter, — an agriculturist and not a trader, — 
who enjoyed the fruits of his labor, in the products of the 
soil newly cleared and virgin, many years, on the west bank 
of the Damariscotta — the site of the village of Newcastle then 
being the improved portion of his estate. Above his place, 
resided another early planter — John Taylor ; and near by, 
Robert Scott ; ^ and these three families were the earliest and 
original occupants of the soil and residents there, in the 
midst of a howling wilderness and savage homes. 

DUKEDOM ESTABLISHED. 

The section of country watered by the Sheep- 

1664. scot and Damariscotta to the Pemaquid had now 
Mar. 12. become the western limits ( whatever claims may 

have been set up for territory from the Avest) of a 
royal grant to the Duke of York and tlie property of this 
Prince. For the next quarter of a century the -Duke fos- 
tered his claim to the " territory of Sagadahoc ;" and until 
it passed into his possession no local government existed. 

Commissioners to represent the government in a local 
organization of civil power were appointed, viz : Col. Rich- 
ard Nichols, Carr, Cartwright, and Maverick. 

1665. The Commissioners assembled on the eastern 
Apr. 15. banks of the Sheepscot, on the " Great Neck," 

" half a league westerly from Damariscotta lower 
Sept. 5. falls," at the dwelling house of John Mason. 

1 Soe Depositions, Commiss. Reports. 



SETTLEMENT. 139 



NEWCASTLE A SHIRE-TOWN. 



Nichols, the acting governor of New York, was not pres- 
ent, the newly acquired province of Sagadahoc being an 
appendage to the colonial government established on the 
Hudson. " Walter Philips," a land-holder and resident on 
the west bank of the Damariscotta, at the lower falls, was 
appointed the clerk. Thus organized, the commission 
"erected" the territory under the Duke's jurisdiction into 
a county, and called it " Cornwall ; " and the Sheepscot 
settlement, where the session was holden, was constituted a 
shire-town, and called " New Dartmouth." ^ Thus the 
ancient dominions of Maine became a Dukedom. 

CONVENTION OF THE RESIDENTS OF THE DUCAL TERRITORY. 

The residents at various points within the Duke's territory 
were summoned to appear and submit to the newly inaugu- 
rated government. Sagadahoc sent in William Frieswell, 
and Richard Hammond — undoubtedly the trader near Hocko- 
mock at Stinson's Point, on the margin of the Cross river 
to Bath — a resident ; John Miller, Robert Morgan, Thomas 
Parker, Marcus Parsons, Thomas Watkins, John White, — 
all probably neighbors of Hammond and residents at the 
mouth of Sheepscot River. 

Sheepscot sent in William Dale, William Dyer, Christo- 
pher Dyer, Nathaniel Draper, Thomas Gent, William James, 
William Marks, John Mason, Thomas Mercer, Walter 
Philips, Moses Pike, Robert Scott, A. Stolger, John Taylor, 
John White. There appeared from Pemaquid Thomas 
Elbridge, Edmund Arrowsmith, George Buckland, Henry 
Champness, Thomas Gardiner, — and Nicholas Raynal from 
Arrowsic. 

These are the only names of the early planters who came 
forward to give in their allegiance to Royal authority — 

iMe. 11. Col, vol. iv, p. 22L 



140 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

early indicative of the existence of the republican spirit, 
subsequently developed in the tory and whig parties. E,aynal 
of Sagadahoc, Gardiner of Pemaquid, and Dyer of Sheepscot 
were commissioned as magistrates ; while Richard Simons 
was authorized as constable. 

DISSENTERS TO DUCAL AUTHORITY. 

It is a singular circumstance, that no one from the settle- ^ 
ment at Wiscasset Point was there ; and yet it is certain 
George Davie had planted a hamlet on his hill near the gaol, 
where he resided and owned land. Four years preceding he 
purchased of the natives a body of land a " mile and more in 
width," fronting on the Wiscasset Bay, and covering the 
site of the shire town of Lincoln county, the present village 
of Wiscasset. He also acquired a title to a considerable 
section of land on the eastern and opposite shore of the bay 
— Edgecomb side — a portion'of which is still occupied by 
the same name and probably remote descendeiits. ^ Dama- 
rin, the Sheepscot sagamore, conveyed to one John 
1666. Davis a plantation on the north-west side of " Wistas- 
sek bay, north into the woods half way to Kennebec." 

A Mordaci Crafford (Clifford ? ) sold a neck of land on 
Sheepscot river, and probably was a resident there and on 
the east sliore near this date. On the north-east side of 
Sheepscot river, at a place called " Wichcassick," in New 
Dartmouth, Richard Pattishall claimed a four-hundred acre 
lot. 

John Tucker ^ of Sheepscot river, a fislicrman at Cape 
Newagen, owned " all the land on the north side of Mons- 
eag river, up along the main river as far as Cowsegan — 
beino; as far as Thomas Cleaves's lease runs down to the 



1 Alias Mohotiwormet. 

2 1662. Purchased by Checkley and Prout of Boston. Me. H. Coll. toI. 
ii. p. 235—6. 



SETTLEMENT. 141 

river, and so to run four miles due north from the main 
river of Cowsegan." Thomas Cleaves, fisherman of Cape 
Newagen, " bought of Robmhood proprietor and sagamore 
of said river," a tract of land on Sheepscot river, containing 
four miles more or less, bounded on the river southeasterly, 
extending in breadth from the lowermost to the uppermost 
narrows, and thence four miles into the country back. 

Nathaniel Draper ^ owned a parcel of land Ijought of a 
Sheepscot sagamore. Jack Pudding, lying between the 
'" Bute Falls," the great bay over against the parting guts 
which lie between Nathaniel Draper, Thomas Mercer, and 
the house to the river. 

Jacob Clark, i as grandson by marriage of Alice, the 
grand-daughter of John Davis, also had a claim to land in 
Wiscasset. These acquisitions of title were chiefly derived 
from Damarin, about this period. Davie and Davis owned 
the site of the village of Wiscasset, if not also the land 
opposite in Edgecomb. " Crafiford" or Clifford settled and 
occupied probably the neck, embracing what is now called 
the " Eddy," on the Edgecomb side of Sheepscot. Patti- 
shall owned and occupied above the Davis tract, also on the 
Edgecomb side opposite Wiscasset. Thomas Cleaves owned 
and occupied the land south of the village of Wiscasset, to 
the narrows, entering Monseag bay. John Tucker owned 
between Cleaves's house and lease to Monseag river. 
Nathaniel Draper and Thomas Mercer probably resided and 
owned to the north of tlie Davis tract and the village of 
Wiscasset above the bay, beginning at the narrows — known 
now as Woodbridge's narrows ; and may have lived on the 
headland overlooking the bay below. 

Thomas Gent built a hoiise at Damariscotta on land given 
him by his father-in-law Taylor, who owned and occupied 
a tract of land beginning at the three coves and running 

1 Me. Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. ii. 



142 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

on a straight line into the fresh meadows to a point of 
land lying on the north side of " Walter Philips' cart path " 
on the west side of Damariscotta river. Taylor's possess- 
ions embraced the oyster-shell banks above the bridge. 
Walter Philips was the neighbor of Taylor and Gent, on the 
west side margin of the Damariscotta, at the falls. John 
Brown, the son of John Brown of New Harbor, owned a 
house on the opposite bank, the eastern shore of Damaris- 
cotta, at the falls, — owning and occupying a large tract of 
land there. Robert Scott lived a neighbor to Brown, and 
northwesterly from Brown's dwelling-house, opposite the 
oyster-shell banks. We have thus located the homes of the 
principal persons present at the Commissioners' court held 
at the house of " John Mason," a resident of Sheepscot and 
a land owner in Edgecomb and Newcastle on the 5th of 
September, 1665. It will be seen that no settlers at and 
about Wiscasset Point were there ; and for the reason prob- 
ably that the sympathies of tlie residents at Wiscasset Point 
were with Massachusetts rather than with the royal author- 
ity of the Duke of York. It is well known that the author- 
ity of the Duke's commissioners often came into collision 
with that of the Massachusetts government which had now 
undertaken to extend its jurisdiction into Maine. Pema- 
quid, Sheepscot, and Sagadahoc had remained in a state of 
natural freedom ; and by the Commissioners' court above 
described, the territory was erected into the " County of 
Cornwall." 

PURCHASE OF BOOTHBAY HARBOR. 

At the harbor of Boothbay, Henry Curtiss was 

166G. probably an original and considerable planter ; 

and from his position, his influence with the aged 

Note. — A widow Willcot claimed land on the west side of Sheepscot 
river below the falls, which was owned by Thomas Mercer, and improved 
by him for years. See Me. H. Col. vol. iv. p. 233. 



SETTLEMENT. 143 

" Mana-wor-met " (father of Robiiiliood ?) was sufficient to 
secure the conveyance of the land, embracing tlie harbor, by 
an instrument giving Curtiss a home there — " a parcel of 
land lying on the northwest side of the northwest passage, 
and the Pond joining into the head of the northwest passage 
unto the Gut of the Back River ^ with all the islands and 
inlets and marshes, containing ifnto the same, — granting 
unto the said Henry Curtiss, his heirs and assigns, full 
power and possession to set down there ^ 

The instrument was witnessed before Henry Joslin by 
Daniel Benether and William Cliffe, who, it may fairly be 
presumed, were neighbors to Curtiss, and may be enumer- 
ated among the earliest settlers of this ancient place, more 
than half a century after its discovery by Weymouth. The 
consideration is a damnatory clause, " in the forfeiture of 
twenty good heaver skins ^'' by which Sylvanus Davis, the 
year before, had been quieted in possession of the other 
moiety of the Boothbay territory, lying on the Damariscotta 
near its mouth, probably from the savages Gosle and Witta- 
nois, and John Cotta, the first of whom had conveyed to 
Walter Philips his homestead at the head waters of the same 
river. ^ 

CLAIMS OF MASSACHUSETTS ASSERTED. 

Massachusetts had indeed begun a series of movements 
to establish her sovereignty here. An organization erecting 
the " County of Devonshire," was attempted at Pemaquid, 
as the capital. Eighty-four inhabitants there congregated. 
Richard Oliver of Monhegan was made clerk, and Thomas 
Gardiner Treasurer of the county. Thomas Humphrey of 
Sagadahoc was created marshal, who, with Robert Gam- 
mon of Cape Ncwagen were constables. Pattishall, Gardiner, 
Gammon, and John Palmer were authorized commissioners 



1 Commiss. Reports, original deeds. 



144 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

" to legalize marriages, acknowledge deeds, and hold a 
commissioners' court." A panel of jurors was made, viz : 
Eobert Emmons and Ambrose Hanvs^ell of Sagadahoc ; John 
Wifford, Ehas Trick, and John Prior of Damariscove ; 
George Bickford and Reynald Kelly of Monhegan ; John 
Call of Pemaquid. Damariscove at this period must have- 
been a place of some population and importance. A mili- 
tary organization was also perfected. Companies were 
enrolled at Sagadahoc, Damariscove, Pemaquid, and Cape 
Newagen. Pattishall ( Paddishall ?) of Sagadahoc, and 
Gardiner of Pemaquid were appointed commanders-in-chief. 
Houses of public entertainment were authorized to be open- 
ed at Sheepscot, Pemaquid, Damariscove, and Sagadahoc. — 
Cotemporary ^ history assures us, that now, in the " Ancient 
Dominions," — the English in great numbers had settled — 
having a large country cleared and under improvement : 
— " stored with cattle and corn fields : " — Pemaquid, Mon- 
hegan, Cape Newagen — " where Capt. Smith fished for 
whales" — all filled with dwelling houses and stages for fish- 
ermen."- 

Immediately on the erection of our territory into a Ducal 

State, it became an appendage to New York : and the an- 
cient hamlet of the " Sheepscot Farms," became the shire 
town of the new county of Cornwall, by name of New Dart- 
mouth ; and the Governor of New York, Dongan, to fill up 
his master's newly acquired Province, introduced many 
Dutch families and thrifty farmers, to the banks of the Sheep- 
scot waters, who secured the agricultural sites on the head 
waters, and along the river margins, where the vestiges of 
this influx of population are still traceable in broken pipes, 
pottery, and domestic utensils, ancient cellars, and remains 
of former homes. 

Pemaquid continued still to be the great radiating center, 

1 Deny's and Joi-elyn's act. 

2 Williamson, vol. i, p. 446. 



SETTLEMENT, l4o 

ill the diffusion of population throughout the Dukedom, 
which continued to flow up our water-courses, planting it- 
self in forest clearings and hamlets, on the banks and mar- 
gins, at every desirable point. Nequaseag and Phips' point, 
in the aboriginal " clear-water and island-waterplaces^^ to- 
gether with the site of Hammond's village, a trading station 
on the Cross-river, or gut passage to Bath, were now all 
occupied. 

It will have been seen that a considerable population not 
represented before the Duke's convention for the organiza- 
tion of his newly acquired province, were inhabitants of the 
ancient dominions of Maine two centuries ago. The 
Davises, the Tuckers, the Cleaves of Wiscasset Point — the 
Craffords, ( Cliffords ? ) and Pattishalls of Edgecomb ; 
Brown of Damariscotta, and many more from Pemaquid, 
Sagadahoc, and about Boothbay, or Cape Newagen, were 
not there. 

Thirty-four years prior to the events which at John 
Mason's house converted this community into a body politic, 
the locality was known as the " Sheepscot Farms, ^^ with a 
population of fifty families, making some two hundred and 
fifty souls. 

EXTENT OP NEW DARTMOUTH. 

This fact is a proof of the early appreciation of the fertile 
meadows and bottom lands of the ancient " Che-va-ve- 
covett." A considerable village had now grown up. The 
point at or below Sheepscot Bridge was the site of this 
village, now invested with the dignities and importance of 
a metropolitan center of the new-created Dukedom, The- 
length of the peninsular site was more than a " mile ; " its- 
width, from a " third to one half; " and it lies between two 
branching prongs of the waters of the Sheepscot, which 
strike off, the one above, the other below ; the one running 
easterly and northerly, and forming the mouth of Dyer's 

10 



146 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

river ; the other bending easterly and southerly into the 
salt marshes below, towards the Damariscotta, and into the 
" heart " of the town of Newcastle, A street called the 
" king's highway," still the great thoroughfare of travel, 
divided the peninsula longitudinally east and west. This 
street, on " both sides," ^ was lined with dwelling and other 
houses, proven by the " numerous cellars" found there, on 
a re-settlement after the Indian troubles had ended, and 
peace and safety were promised to the returning heirs of the 
slaughtered inhabitants. Nearly opposite the " falls/' 
some " ninety rods" in the line of the street southward, the 
peninsula rises by gradual ascent into a hill, whose summit 
commands the whole locality ; and which was crowned with 
a fortified work of timber. The place of the dead there, 
now occupies three sides of this fortified work, for the rea- 
son probably that the land was public property ; and in those 
perilous times the ancient people ventured not far from the 
garrison to bury their dead, there being no surety of life 
but under the protection of its guns, or within its stockade. 
The iron hail which was showered from this fortified hill 
top on a savage and ruthless foe is still turned out by the 
furrow of the plowman in the shape of cannon balls " of 
moderate size," ^ in the neighboring fields. 

VESTIGES OF ANCIENT OCCUPANCY. 

To the north of the fort, some forty rods, on the east side 
of the street, "a pavement of flat stones — a floor some 
twenty feet square " — compactly laid with joint nicely fitted 
to joint, was discovered only a few inches under the ground. 
" Some forty rods further south, on the opposite side of the 
street," says the Rev. Mr. Cushman, whose eloquent and 
'graphic description I beg leave to borrow, — " stood that 

1 Cushman, Me. H. Coll., p. 211. 

-2 Rev. Mr. Cushman, M. H. Coll., vol. iv. p. 213. 



SETTLEMENT. 147 

important appendage of every settlement . . . the black 
smith's shop." With a select party an exploration was 
made by excavating the spot. On digging through the 
debris and new-made soil some " eight inches," " we came," 
he adds, " to a hard pan," the floor of the shop. " Here 
was the Birmingham of the whole country ; and here too 
the honest yeomanry met on a stormy day to talk, discuss, 
and project enterprises. On this floor we found the cinders 
and slag which fell from the furnace — bits of iron — the 
bolt of a lock, and a piece of work partially finished, in the 
shape and of the size of a large latch. It might have been 
the last work" of the smith, which in attempting to finish, 
he let fall, " as the Indian war-whoop was heard from the 
distant hills, and the unprotected inhabitants were compelled 
to flee for their lives." 

" Melted pewter — charred corn and peas" are found, — 
vestiges of an ancient and agricultural people : — also stones, 
brick, and lime in the ancient cellars — relics indicating 
surprise of the fugitive dwellers, or such haste as forced the 
inhabitants to flee for their lives, leaving their pewter plates 
and basins, their household stufi*, their goods, their all, as 
it was. A gold " sig-net-ring- " taken from an old cellar on 
the southern extreme of the peninsula, would lead us to 
infer that some did not escape with their lives in the terrible 
scene: — some fond mother, some doating wife, some loving 
sister, some timid, terror-stricken maiden ! 

ANCIENT CHRONICLES OP STONE. 

A mile to the eastward is the ancient " Mill Creek," on 
which are the relics of a mill, whose broken stones have 
been there antecedent to the record of human recollection. 
The site must have been anterior to the advent of its ancient 
European occupants. A race antecedent to all historical 
data must have dwelt and had an interest there, — an inter- 
est of importance to the future, whose messages, wrapped 



148 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

in the mysteries of a medium of communication prior to a 
knowledge of letters — inscribed in hieroglyphics on stone, 
have been transmitted to our day. For it is said, such 
" stones with curious inscriptions," ^ in the southern part 
of this peninsula, have been found. But alas ! what vandal- 
ism ! it is added, " some of these stones were used in build- 
ing the cellars of modern settlers, and still remain in the 
walls" ! What secrets of history are covered here ? A thread 
of the long lost past may here be found, which shall lead us 
back to adventures — a race of which rumor alone has any 
recollection in the quite forgotten traditions of the north ! 

Is it indeed a fact that Monhegan, Damariscove, and 
Sheepscot are stored with unexplored treasures of a history 
on their enduring, stone-inscribed monuments ? The fact 
is worth the investigation of the curious and the learned as 
a tribute to literature alone. 

The ancient site of Sheepscot is rationally presumed from 
its geological features to have once been an island. Within 
twenty years of Popham's abortive attempt to found and 
rear a town at the mouth of the Kennebec, it was the cen- 
ter of an agricultural community called the " Sheepscot 
farms." In a half a century from tliat disastrous event, it 
had grown to a village " a mile or more in length," densely 
settled, and was made a shire town of the county of " Corn- 
wall," by the name of New Dartmouth ; and now having 
passed through desolating changes and scenes of agonizing 
interest, two centuries and a half having elapsed, it is the 
simple village of Sheepscot on the western boundary of the 
town of Newcastle, the changes of so considerable a period 
not having as yet removed it, as a central, thrifty point in 
the midst of the meadows and fertile bottoms of the ancient 
Sheepscot. The present city-like villages of Newcastle and 
Damariscotta, at the falls of the river of that name, at the 

lEev. D. Cushman, Me. H. Coll., vol. iv. p. 212. 



SETTLEMENT. 149 

date heijB given were hardly a hamlet of two houses on the 
eastern and three on the western bank, and with no street 
but a cart path to Sheepscot. 

ANCIENT TRADING POST OP SHEEPSCOT. 

Except at Cape Newagen, history has left us no record of 
ancient trading posts on the Sheepscot ; and gives the names 
of but two of that speculating development of humanity in 
our early history, termed " truckmasters," — " Coke" ^ of 
Cape Newagen, mentioned by Levett, and Walker, a man 
of influence with the natives, mentioned by Hubbard, the 
location of whose trading establishment is not known. 

SHEEPSCOT SETTLERS. 

It is probable that the original occupants of the banks of 
the Sheepscot commanded their subsistence as " lords of the 
soil " rather than in the more doubtful issues of native trade. 
They were farmers and not speculators. 



1 Levett's Voyage, p. 87. Hubbard, p. 265. 



CHAPTER IV. 



INDIAN WARS 



NATURAL CAUSES. 



We have now reached the epoch particularly char- 
acterized by collision between the races originally 166T. 
occupying and those seeking a new home from a 
foreign soil. 

This issue follows the great laws of nature, in that econ- 
omy which forces the old to give place to the new, thus 
perpetuating a renovating energy throughout her domain. 

Disturbance is a natural consequence of the influx of 
population, (especially where the elements are not homo- 
geneous ) when it flows in with a force and fullness suffi- 
cient to displace original races. 

Decay, change, renovation, are the constantly recurring 
phases of nature ; and of human society as a subject of 
natural law, as marked and decided in the succession of 
races, states, and nations as in the succession of generations 
or of vegetation. It ever has been, it ever will be, that the 
fresh and new, with its excess of life and energy, will in its 
season appear to replace the decay and waste of the old. 

MORAL CAUSES. 

The Puritans ^ of Massachusetts detected a source 
1 Annals of Salem, No. iii. p. 250. 



152 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

of public calamities in the social customs of the day, which 
may excite the admiration of this. 

The General Court publish what they consider twelve 
evils, which brought on the country the burning and depop- 
ulation of several hopeful plantations, and the murdering 
of many people by the Indians — viz : " Long hair, like 
women's hair, is worn by some men, either their own or 
other people's hair, made into periwigs ; and by some wom- 
en wearing borders of hair, and their cutting, curling, and 
immodest laying out their hair ; which practice doth prevail 
and increase, especially among the younger sort." 

Another evil, proclaimed by the General Court at Salem, 
was, " pride in apparel, both for costliness in the poorer 
sort, and vain new strange fashions, both in poor and rich, 
with naked breasts and arms ; or as it were pinioned with 
the addition of superfluous ribbons, both on hair and 
apparel." 

But a more rational source of trouble was the conduct 
of the early voyagers and the resident fishermen, by which 
all respect for the superiority of the white race, conceived 
on a first and superficial acquaintance, was dissipated, and 
savage resentments provoked, till gradually a fearful and 
terrible climax was reached. 

Gorges, in his plea at the bar of the House of Commons, 
complained, " that the mischief already sustained by these 
disorderly persons is inhuman and intolerable ; being ivorse 
than the savages in their inanners and behaviour : impu- 
dently and openly lying with their women : teaching their 
men to drink drunk ; to swear and blaspheme the name of 
God.i 

IMPRUDENCE OP THE WHITES. 

The herds and cornfields and meadows of Hadley 

1675. on the Connecticut river had suffered from savage 

depredation. Conjecture pointed to the natives of 



1 Gorges' Narrative, M. H. Coll., vol. ii. p. 38. 



INDIAN WARS. 153 

the remote east as the perpetrators of the mischief. 

Mo-ho-tiwormet or Robiiihood, the aged sachem of the 
lower Sheepscot or Sagadahoc waters, was threatened with 
vengeance, in a message demanding redress for damages 
alleged to have been done. 

This wanton disturbance of the natives of Maine excited 
the wildest alarm. Rumor had lent wings to tlie exciting 
intelligence, which, in a thousand distorted forms of exag- 
geration, was flying through the wilds of Maine, disturbing, 
exasperating, and dissipating all the elements of mutual con- 
fidence between the red and white races. The planters and 
residents of the Sheepscot and Sagadahoc became greatly 
disquieted. 

The great Mo-ho-tiwormet, — the aboriginal lord of the 
soil where he dwelt, one of the most powerful native chief- 
tains, on whose friendship their lives and fortunes depended, 
had been wantonly and unreasonably provoked. The white 
residents called a public meeting at the dwelling house of 
Capt. Patishall, ( Paddishall ? ) probably at his island-home 
in the lower waters of the Sagadahoc, within the town of 
Phipsburg. Various plans were devised to avert the 
impending storm-cloud. 

The peril was common and imminent. It was finally 
resolved to visit and disarm the savages, — a plan, all the 
features of which could not have been considered, or it 
never would have been adopted. 

Volunteers for the delicate and dangerous service came 
forward, who directed their efforts toward the natives of the 
Kennebec and its tributaries, proposing to make reconnois- 
sances or fight, as necessity and expediency might suggest. 
Walker, an ancient Sheepscot truckmaster, who, by his 
probity and experience with the savages, had acquired influ- 
ence over them, was successful in persuading some of them 
to give up their arms and ammunition, as a guarantee of 
their pacific intentions. The plan was deemed feasible and 



154 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

expedient, as a measure of safety to the planters. But a 
savage of the Androscoggin, at an interview had with Lake, 
Patishall, and others, who had gone out to execute the pro- 
cess of disarming tlie Indians, sprang on one of tlie party 
with his \ip-raised battle-axe, and aimed a blow at the head 
of Hosea Mallet, a Frcnclmian. The blow Avas averted 
from its fatal eifects, but Sowen, the daring savage, was 
seized, bound, and immured in a cellar. 

The Sanops and aged men of the tribe deplored the 
aspect of affairs, declared Sowen worthy of death, and 
offered to redeem his life with " forty beaver skins." Some 
of their number were pledged as sureties. By the dawn 
of the succeeding day the wild woods of Sagadahoc rang 
with the shouts and echoed with the savage notes of Mo-ho- 
tiwormet and his braves, who made the great dance and 
sang the song of peace at the doors of the terror-stricken 
white man. Sowen was released. But the hostages soon 
made good their escape, defying the vigilance of their keep- 
ers, and the beaver skins were never paid. 

KING Philip's war. 

Kino: Philip's war had been raging in Massachusetts. 
This fire, kindled by the natives to consume the whites, had 
turned back with devouring fury, till Philip and his braves 
had fallen and been consumed. 

The hostile bearing of the eastern savages was undoubt- 
edly assumed under the influence of fugitives from the 
scene of Philip's disaster, with a hope of exterminating the 
whole race of white men, which the brave and patriotic 
Philip had inspired. 

In the dance of peace, the embers of war had not been 
extinguislied. Smothered in the savage breast, a most 
brutal outrage on the wife and child of Squando rekindled 
them into quenchless flames. 



INDIAN WARS. 155 

OUTRAGE ON A SAVAGE MOTHER. 

As the wife of Squando, the lord of the native Sekokis, 
paddled her fragile bark canoe across the waters of the 
Saco, some frolicksome seamen overturned or cast the 
infant savage into the water. It sank to the bottom. The 
mother, urged bj the instincts of the maternal heart, 
plunged to rescue her darling from death. She at length 
rose to the surface with the child alive, but so injured by 
the wanton act as to die soon after. 

The exasperated father, — the fierce chieftain — was pro- 
voked to vengeance. 

ASSAULT ON THE PURCHASE PLANTATION. 

In September, the store- houses of Thomas Purchase, a 
Merry Meeting planter, near the head of New ISleadows 
River, were sacked. Twenty painted savages plundered 
the liquor, seized the ammunition, ripped up the feather 
beds for tlie sake of the ticking, butchered the calves, and 
slaughtered the sheep — leaving the females, — the only 
members of the family at home, unmolested, but warned 
that " other savages were coming who would deal far worse 
with them." 

Tiie Indians had taken a great aversion to Purchase, who 
had amassed great wealth, and much of it by hard dealing 
with the natives in trade, one of whom charged " that for 
the water he had drawn out of Purchasers well he had paid 
an hundred pounds ! " 

Retaliation followed. A party of twenty-five neighboring 
planters manned a sloop and two boats, and at once pro- 
ceeded to the scene of recent outrage, by way of Casco Bay 
and New Meadows River, with a view to gather and secure 
the growing crops, as well as to reconnoitre. As the party 
drew near the deserted premises, the sound of blows therein 
gave warning of the enemies' presence within the ransacked 



156 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

buildings. Very soon three savages were espied. The 
sloop and boats lay moored below ; and by a circuitous 
route the party sought to cut off the savages and intercept 
their flight to the neighboring thickets by throwing them- 
selves between the enemy and the woods. Perceiving their 
retreat to the forest to be cut off by the hostile white man's 
forces, the savages made for their canoes at the water-side. 
They were pursu.ed, and the first volley brought one to the 
ground and wounded a second, who succeeded in gaining 
his canoe and escaping with his life. The third savage, in. 
the confusion, under cover of the smoke of the blazing fire 
arms, gained the covert of the woods, and reached his com- 
rades, who immediately formed an ambuscade, while the 
unwary planters scattered to gather their harvest. 

Busied here and there, reckless of their peril, they gath- 
ered their corn and laded their boat. At this juncture, the 
ambushed savages, with their accustomed yells and whoops 
of war, rose from their concealment, and fired on the scat- 
tered workmen. Fortunately some of the company were 
in a state of readiness for defense ; and under cover of their 
fire, the dispersed planters gained the sloop. Several were 
wounded, but no one was killed. All escaped. But the 
corn-laden boats became a prey to the Indians, who burned 
the one and plundered the other. 

Thus worsted in the battle — the first battle-scene of the 
terrible drama now opened — the settlers fled, and the vic- 
torious red-men, in small bands, more bold and presump- 
tuous, sought trophies for the tomahawk and scalping knife, 
in every direction, at the door of every plantation. 

Sylvanus Davis, the agent of Clark and Lake, resident at 
the newly laid-out town on Arrowsic, enlivened with mills 
and trading houses, and defended by fortified works, 
dispatched a messenger to secure the arms and ammunition 
of a trading post up the Kennebec, near the site of the 
capital of Maine. Encountering the Kennebec natives, he 



INDIAN WARS. 157 

menaced them " with death,''^ if they did not yield to the 
policy of the lohite-man. come in and deliver their arms. 
Exasperated at such bravado, the savages of the Kennebec 
waters sent runners to those of the Penobscot under 
Modock-a-wando, and the St. Johns River. A conference was 
held at the fortress of Baron de Castine. The tomahawk 
was dug up, the scalping knife unsheathed, and the pipe of 
peace was flung away. Every forest wild echoed the note, 
and every camp-fire glowed witli the blood-red visage of 
Deatli. All was commotion. Every heart was shaken with 
gloomy forebodings. 

The venerable Slmrt of Pemaquid, the chief magistrate 
of the East, a man of age, discretion, and probity of char- 
acter, as well as experience, finally secured an interview 
with the disaffected sagamores, at the eastern metropolis. 
Public indignation burned with reckless zeal, and blindly 
turned against every one who counseled peace. Multitudes 
were bent on violence, utterly indifferent to the fearful 
issues of savage warfare. They maligned the motives and 
misinterpreted the acts of those who would restore confi- 
dence and preserve peace. But Shurt persisted in his peace- 
ful overtures, and in defiance of opposition and false 
accusation, he obtained a hearing at Pemaquid. 

The natives complained of " wrongs done them on the 
Kennebeck," ^ the depot of the Puritan trading houses 
of Plymouth. Shurt gave assurance that their wrongs 
should be redressed. By his assurances a prospect of con- 
tinued tranquility was preserved. ^ In the promise of 
being " righted " in their wrongs, the savages were diverted 
from their purposes of blood. 

SLAVE TRADERS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

Evil surmisings, jealousies, and whispers of evil worked 

1 Hubbard, p. 302. 

2 Williamson, vol. i. p. 526. Hubbard, p. 293—303. 



158 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

tlieir way into the ears of the Massachusetts government, 
Maj. Waldron, one of its officers, issued under autliority 
of the Bay, '•'- general warrants'''' for seizing every native 
known to be a " man-slayer.'''' 

The precepts of Waldron falling into the hands of 
unprincipled seamen, were used as authority for kidnap- 
ping the natives to sell for slaves. 

A vessel lurked in the by-places about the harbors of 
Pemaquid, with a view to this traffic. With the master, 
Shurt remonstrated — importunately desiring him to leave 
the region — assuring him that peace now reigned which 
might be disturbed. 

But these remonstrances were unavailing. What was 
the peace of a community, the lives of women and children, 
the value of the prosperity of these infant settlements of 
the distant East compared with the profits of slave 
trading ? 

In Massachusetts and Maine, slaves were bought 
1676. and sold — "born in their houses and bought with 
their money." Why should not the red man, as well 
as the black, be made a subject of gainful speculation ? 
The muscles and sinews of the Indian, as well as the Negro, 
could be turned into gold. Furs were becoming scarce. 
The fisheries required diligence and perseverance to give a 
slow but sure return. The slave mart promised good pay, 
great profits, and little labor. The shrewd Yankee, with 
an eye to the benefit of himself and owners, had no scruples 
in turning kidnapper, and his sloop into a slaver on the 
coasts of Maine ! 

Several natives were seized, carried into foreign parts, 
and sold. ^ Incensed at this new and strange outrage, 
before attempting to meet out retribution for the atrocious 
wrong, the Indians returned to Abraham Shurt at Pema- 



1 Williamson, vol. i. p. 531. 



INDIAN WARS. 159 

quid, whose kind offices had won their confidence as an 
upright magistrate, and complained that "• many of their 
brothers were missing' — and were possibly miserable slaves 
in foreign lands." 

DESTRUCTION OF THE ARROWSIC TOWNS. 

King Philip was dead. With him, the hopes 
of his race had expired. To the East, in their Aug. 12. 
disappointment, were borne the embers of war ; 
which were scattered through the wilds of Maine, kindling 
anew the resentments of the excited savages, now burning 
with enthusiasm to revenge their fallen chief. 

A terrible blow was struck in the heart of Sag- 
adahoc, whose reverberations wakened echoes Aug. 13. 
whose horrors have thrilled through generations, 
till they have reached the ears of our own. 

DEVASTATION OF HAMMOND'S TOWN. 

About Spring Cove on Stinson's Point, jutting into the 
western margins of Hockomock Bay, along the great thor- 
oughfare from Pemaquid, Hammond, an Indian trader, had 
established his post, planted the nucleus of a town, and 
reared a fort. 

His hamlet, the earliest of the settlements of Georgetown, 
and one of the chief within the limits of our region, was 
the first object of attack. Prejudices had grown up between 
the truckmasters and the natives, on account of fancied or 
real wrongs, which made them conspicuous objects of ven- 
geance. The hope of booty may also have stimulated the 
savage desires. 

During the evening of Saturday, many Indians gathered 
at Hammond's Town ; and some of the women sought shel- 
ter for the night in Richard Hammond's dwelling-house, 
desiring to lodge on the kitchen floor. The appearances, 
conversation, or intimations of the savages, inspired the 



160 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

kitchen maid, yet in early girl-hood, with presentiments of 
evil. She left the house to secrete herself abroad. Per- 
ceiving her trepidation, the natives, to conceal the better 
their purposes and allay suspicion, sought, found, and 
brought her home again. 

Another band of painted red-men meanwhile joined their 
fellows within this devoted hamlet. Fully persuaded of 
their treacherous and bloody designs, the girl again left the 
house, and made good her escape to a neighboring field 
of ripening corn. There sheltered by the darkness, in close 
concealment eluding the search of the Indians, she was 
soon startled by the noise of violence, the yells of death, 
and the piercing shrieks and cries of the dying and wounded 
inmates of her master's house. These terrible monitions 
added speed to her flight. Crossing the tides of Hock- 
omock, she fled to Sheepscot, and by morning reached the 
Davis plantation at Wiscasset. The warning was timely. 
No intelligence had come from the scene ol death, till pass- 
ers-by discovered the dead and mangled bodies lying naked 
on the beach, — no one out of sixteen souls surviving death 
or captivity save the girl who had fled to the Sheepscot 
plantation, twelve miles distant. It was afterward ascer- 
tained that the savage women who lodged in the kitchen 
opened the fastenings of the garrison house, and let the 
warriors in to surprise the unconscious inmates above ; and 
Eichard Hammond, Samuel Smith, and Joshua Grant were 
slain at once. 

SACKING OF LAKE AND CLAEK'S VILLACxE. 

The savage band now divided. Eleven canoes turned 
into the Kennebec and up that river. The house of Francis 
Card of Woolwich was attacked, and himself and family 
led into captivity. The other party crossed to Arrowsic 
Island, after rifling and burning Hammond's village. The 
home of a settler in their war path was left unmolested. 



INDIAN WAKS. 161 

Turning adrift his canoes, before break of day on Sunday 
morning, the party were concealed behind " a great rock," 
near the walls of the fort which defended the settlement of 
Lake and Clark. The sentinel retired earlier than he was 
wont from his post. On entering the gate, he was uncon- 
sciously followed by the stealthy tread of an ambushed foe. 
The sentinel was silenced. The fortifications were secured. 
The port-holes were occupied, and all who passed or repassed 
were shot down without warning. The savages were soon 
masters of the place. 

Mr. Lake, the partner of Clark, was abore, 
asleep. Roused by the noise and struggles of Aug. 14. 
death below, with his agent, Capt. Sylvanus 
Davis, and two more, he escaped through a back passage to 
the water-side. Here, seizing a canoe, they made for a 
neighboring island. Lake, Davis, and their companions 
were at once pursued. The savages had the advantage in 
the pursuit with their light bark canoes ; and on coming 
within range, fired on the fugitives. Davis was wounded. 
By extraordinary exertion, all reached the shore, overcome' 
with fatigue, terror, and surprise. 

The savages also landed and continued the pursuit. Un- 
able to fight or fly, Davis crawled into the cleft of a rock 
under a sheltering clifif. The sun had now risen, and look- 
ing over the tree-tops of Reskeagan, poured his beams in 
dazzling luster on the cliflf-side shelter of Davis, blinding 
the eyes of his pursuers. 

For two days Davis crouched within his hiding place ; and 
then dragging himself along by the water's edge, he fortu- 
nately reached a canoe, into which he rolled his body and 
drifted away and thus escaped detection. 

The companions of Lake and Davis gained the northern 
extremity of the island, and fled to the plantations above. 
Lake, left alone, attempted still to fly, but a swift-footed 
savage outstripped him, and attempted to capture him.. 

11 



162 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

Then Lake, turning on his pursuer, presented his pistols ; 
but before he could shoot, the unerring aim of the savage 
laid him dead at his feet. Seizing the hat of his victim, he 
bore it on his own head as a trophy of his success. 

Lake was an enterprising and excellent man, and it is 
said the savages had intended to save him alive, if possible. 
Nor was it certainly known that Lake had been slain, until 
he who did the bloody deed confessed it to Capt. Davis. A 
Sagamore Sam was seized and sentenced to death in retalia- 
tion of the murder of Lake, which sentence was executed.^ 

Seven months elapsed, and the body of Lake was found 
where it fell, in a state of good preservation, recognized by 
a leathern jacket he used to wear. It was taken to Boston 
for interment. The May previous to his melancholy decease, 
this gentleman had been appointed to the office ^ of Associate 

1 From J. W. Thornton Esq., Boston. 

15.221. Boston, y' 15"" of Septemb' 1676. 

To y' hon^d Gov'nor & Councill setting at Boston. 
The humble petition of John Lake. 

Whereas there hath been & Is a common fame of my brother Thomas 
Lake being captive among y' Indians, & hearing nothing to y° contrary, 
gives some hopes y' it may be so, & hearing y" Sagamore Sam is to receive 
a sentence of Death (as it is supposed) if so, y' fame thereof may go to 
those Indians ■vv"' whom my broth' Is, w* may provoke them to proceed w* 
Kim to y' same sentence of death. Wherefore my humble request is y' you 
•would be pleased to suspend his sentence or at least y' execution thereof 
for about twenty or thirty dayes ; in w* time if y* said Sam can be instru- 
mentall to procure y" return of my broth' y' you then would be pleased to 
spare his life, and for y' effecting of this, y' you would be pleased, to let him 
have y° choice of some Indians whome he knows may have most influence 
upon them, and whom he can best trust for their return In y' it may con- 
cern his own life, so y' upon their return we may certainly know how It is 
T** my broth% w""" will oblige yo' humble petition" in duty bound to 
pray &c. 

Denye'd: IS^of Septemb 1676. 

E. R. S. 

2 Original Commission in hands of J. W. Thornton Esq. 



INDIAN WARS. 1G3 

Judge, with Humphrey Davie and Richard Coleycote, (Col- 
licot?) in holding courts in the county of Devonshire, under 
jurisdiction of the Government of Massachusetts Bay. Law- 
rence Hunnewell was his assistant.' 

By tliis savage incursion, the large and beautiful estab- 
lishment of Messrs. Lake and Clark — the mansion house — 
the mills — the out buildings — the entire village was re- 
duced to ashes ! Such was the fate of the Arrowsic towns 
of more than half a century's growth. 

THE PLANTATIONS ABANDONED. 

Filled with dismay, the planters on the Sheepscot, on 
learning the fate of Hammond and Lake, deserting their 
fields of ripening corn, leaving their herds and homes, at 
once fled. John Dale, ' a fugitive from the massacre of the 
Arrowsic Towns, reached the dwelling house of Thomas 
Gent on Sheepscot Great Neck, and gave him warning of 
the hostility of the savages. Thence he hasted to the house 
of Walter Philips, "which stood on the great hill" overlook- 
ing the Damariscotta from the west, at the " lower falls," 
bearing the terrible tidings, giving his family the earliest 
and timely notice of their peril. Thus warned, Pliilips, 
leaving his home in the midst of a thriving orchard, (from 
which apples were gathered nearly a century after,) and 
great improvements, gathered his family and neighbors and 
fled to Salem, Mass., escaping " only with his life and the loss 
of all his goods." 

John Dale continued his flight to Pemaquid, heralding the 
approach of savage calamities. 

Among ^ the English emigrants to Maine, was James 
Gyles, a brother of Judge Gyles, slain at Pemaquid. Gyles 
had landed at the Kennebec, and taken up his abode at 

1 Dale's deposition — Lincoln Com. Reports, pp. 98, 100, 15. 

2 Gyles' MSS. Narrative, from John McKeen, Esq. 



164 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

Merry Meeting ; and was an interested spectator of the open- 
ing scenes in this drama of death and devastation. In the 
Merry Meeting plantation he had taken up his abode at the 
" Whisgeag House," and purchasing of the natives a home- 
stead, finally built at " Muddy River." These localities all 
were within the marginal circuit of the same body of water. 

The outbreak of the Indians forced him with his neigh- 
bors to desert their homes, and go into the garrison house 
of Samuel York. Thirty days these refugees of Merry 
Meeting were crowded in this strong hold. 

Every day the savages became more violent. The cattle 
and swine were slaughtered, and the deserted homes were 
burned. But nine persons remained to defend the place, 
the "faint hearted" having left their garrisoned neighbors. 
So about the middle of Septembei" all retired to the " Row- 
sick House," down the river — the main defense of the 
region. From hence, the frontier men were accustomed to 
visit their clearings and plantation sites, to sow and 
reap. This was the year preceding the massacre described. 
One of these planting expeditions brought the settlers in 
collision with a body of natives. A skirmish ensued. Sev- 
eral savages were slain and the remainder put to flight, 
which gave peace for the winter ensuing. Crowded in their 
strong hold at the " Rowsick House," the planters, five fam- 
ilies, and Gyles among them, crossed to the west shores of 
the Sagadahoc opposite, and occupied the house of Sylvanus 
Davis the balance of winter. Peace, the result of the 
Pemaquid conference, being in good promise, cheered these 
pioneers of the Kennebec with strong hopes of a safe and 
speedy return to their deserted planting grounds. 

But Gyles removed still further down the river, and occu- 
pied the empty house of Mr. Wiswell, and planted his crop 
for the season. " Early ^ in the morning, when no English- 

* Gyles gives the date as Aug. 9, instead of that given in history. 



INDIAN WARS. 165 

man had a thought of war," like an avalanche from the sides 
of a sleeping volcano — the savages fell on "Rowsick" — 
"killing and destroying all in their way." Fifty people fell 
a sacriiice to savage barbarities in death and captivity. 

Gyles seized a canoe, lading his family therein, leaving all 
else to the mercy of the Indians, fled for Damariscove, where 
were congregated tlie fugitives from " Sheepscot," Pemaquid, 
and all the surrounding regions. 

Three hundred souls, the fragments of the neighboring 
plantations, now broken up, had made this island at the 
mouth of Boothbay Harbor their refuge. 

INCIDENTS OF THE RETREAT. 

For a week they made ineffectual attempts to reach the 
plantations on the main and recover something for subsist- 
ence from their former homes. 

The entire circuit of the main, landward, was alive with 
savages. Every point of approach was ambuscaded; and 
the hardy and suffering fugitives were beaten back to their 
island retreat. 

By night, two days after the sacking of Arrowsic, an 
express reached Pemaquid. The residents of the place, at 
the story of Dale, at once took to the shipping in the har- 
bor, designing to fly to Monhegan. Adverse winds com- 
pelled them to turn aside into Damariscove, where Wiswell 
and Collicott had gathered with the Kennebec refugees. 

The first attention was given to the fortifications of the 
island. Forty days the people laljored at the works. But 
difficulties arose, and a mutinous disposition, consequent on 
the want of food, from the sudden accession of forlorn and 
destitute fugitive men, women, and children, soon made it 
apparent nothing effectual could be done to secure the 
island against savage incursion. 

It was therefore abandoned as a place of refuge. The 
larger portion of the fugitives continued their flight to Mon- 



166 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

hegan ; and scarcely liad the refugees from the Main and 
Damariscove reached tlieir sea-girt retreat, and removed 
from their deserted houses at Pemaquid a portion of their 
household stuff, when the whole circle of the horizon land- 
ward was darkened and illumined by the columns of smoke 
and fire rising from the burning houses of the neighboring 
Main and adjacent islands ! The entire perspective was a 
scene of conflagration ! Richard Padishall abandoned his 
island home — an ancestral abode — and with his family and 
coasting sloop made good his escape to the better protected 
neighborhood of Pemaquid. Worn out and discouraged, 
all but the Pemaquidders yielded to the necessities of their 
condition, and scattered to remote parts westward. 

The planters of the Davis hamlet near Wiscasset and on 
the Sheepscot waters, first warned by the intelligence of the 
tragedy at Stinson's Point, by the tale of the maid servant 
who fled on the night of the massacre, retired to the fort at 
Cape Newagen. 

Proposing to maintain their position till succor could be 
received from Boston, a guard of twenty-five men was kept 
out, and measures of defense were organized. But the peo- 
ple were panic-stricken, and all hope of speedy relief bein^ 
crushed out by the sad recollections and gloomy aspect of 
their state, the newly launched ship of Wm. Phips became 
to them an ark of salvation. Embarked in the unfinished 
hulk, they put to sea for a port westward, leaving the entire 
region to desolation and solitude ! 

card's escape. 

Francis Card, the captive of the savages who had destroyed 
Hammond's Town, was taken near to the planting grounds 
of the Kennebec Indians, up the river. 

Card had been set to threshing out corn in a barn. 
These savages preferred horse-flesh to the best of beef. A 
captive was employed to catch the horses of the planters, 



INDIAN WARS. 167 

now wild in the woods, to be butchered to satisfy the mor- 
bid longings of his masters' appetite. Card was permitted 
to aid him ; and while thus engaged in a horse hunt, the two 
captives sent word to the lodge that their return at a given 
time could not be expected, on account of ill-success. Thus 
finding the coast clear, the prisoners secured a canoe, swept 
down the river with the tide, crossed Casco Bay, and in two 
or three days reached the fort at Black Point in Scarboro'. 

It was a full fortnight after the sacking of the Arrowsic 
towns that the Norridgewock Indians, numbering eighty 
warriors, returned from their retreat up the Kennebec, to 
destroy the herds and burn the deserted houses of the plant- 
ers on the Main. Reaching Damariscove, they put fire to 
the village on that island, killed two men, and captured 
their shallop and ketch. Thomas Cobbet, the son of the 
Ipswich minister, ( a captive at the date of these events, 
and because, said the savages, " his father was a great 
preach-man," he could be redeemed only with a coat,) 
relates that fifty to sixty captives from the Kennebec and 
Sheepscot plantations were held in bondage ; — the women 
being compelled to make up garments out of the plundered 
fabrics of Hammond's and Lake's store-houses. These for- 
lorn men and women he met in December, on the Sheep- 
scot, where he was taken to navigate for his captors a small 
vessel they had seized, and there he was compelled to walk 
over land to Damariscotta five miles, and thence paddle a 
canoe fifty miles to Penobscot, where his redemption was 
secured. 

abbot's adventures. 

John Abbot, the master of the vessel in which Cobbet 
had been captured, was also employed on the Sheepscot 
waters. After Gobbet's departure for Penobscot, the vessel 
in use by tlie natives lay moored for the winter, probably in 
the harbor of the ancient Me-ni-kuk. 



168 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

It was now the month of February. With their usual 
improvidence, the savages had consumed both food and 
ammunition. The shallop was a thirty-ton craft. They 
required Abbot to fit her for sea, on a voyage to Penobscot 
for supplies. Ten savages embarked with Abbot". Hardly 
had he put to sea when a storm arose, with wind ahead. 
It was a dead beat against a heavy sea, and Abbot so man- 
aged as to increase the perils of the sea, and strike terror 
to the hearts of his sea-sick masters, who begged for land. 
The nearest point. Cape Newagen, was reached, and eight 
savages landed. Two remained. Persuading these that 
their anchorage was perilous. Abbot made sail for Damar- 
iscove. 

On the passage he so used the helm as to ship a sea, wash 
his decks, and thoroughly frighten his savage companions 
and guardsmen, who, as soon as the vessel reached the har- 
bor, hasted on shore. 

Two native children had died on board, and their bodies 
were taken to land for burial. With the plea of the neces- 
sity of his presence on board to save the ship. Abbot per- 
sisted in remaining ; but soon as the Indians were landed, 
greasing the mast of his sloop with the pork taken for food, 
he ran up the sails with his own hand, and with no living 
soul save himself and a child some three years old, he 
pushed off with a free sheet and stiff northeaster in his 
rear, which speedily wafted him to the " Isle of Shoals," 
beyond the reach of liis masters. 

waldron's expedition. 

These outrages on the eastern frontiers roused 
1677. Government to action. Major Waldron, the chief 
Feb. 17. commander in this section, was dispatched with a 
force deemed adequate to recover the lost planta- 
tions and chastise the lawless savages, reduce them to 
subordination and rescue the captive citizens of Sheepscot 



INDIAN WARS. 169 

and Kennebec. Waldron embarked for that river. Here 
was the center of the Massachusetts interest. Two hundred 
and fifty men accompanied his command. Cold and adverse 
winds, an icy and perilous ocean, embarrassed his progress 
eastward. The waters of Casco Bay, being free from ice, 
invited tlie fleet bearing the little army to discharge its liv- 
ing freight on the shores of the plains of Brunswick. 

Bivouacked on " Mare Point," ^ amid the snows and 
frosts of mid-winter, " Squando," the head of the Sekokis, 
and " Simon, the Yankee-killer," from the broken forces of 
King Philip, met Waldron in a conference. A proposal for 
the recovery of the captives was made. Suddenly a flotilla 
of fourteen canoes shot up the bay toward a projecting 
headland. The parley was ended. It had been Waldron's 
design to surprise the enemy ; but the fleet-footed, sharp- 
sighted Indian had long followed the fleet, tracing the pro- 
gress of the voyage from the headlands of Cape Elizabeth. 

The flames bursting from the roof of a solitary dwelling 
on the point of landing clearly indicated the hostile pur- 
poses of the savage flotilla. Shouts of mutual defiance 
went up. The scouts came in. Captain Frost was detached 
to cut off the enemy's retreat. Detecting this movement, 
the savages fled. The whole command opened their fire, 
and several were supposed to fall. The fire was returned, 
but without disaster : " though," it is added, " some of their 
bullets hit some of our men," — the spent shot failing of 
their design. 

A flag of truce ended further violence. A parley opened 
with mutual recrimination, but closed with the assurance 
on the part of Simon, the Yankee killer, that the project to 
surrender the captives, under discussion when the skirmish 
began, should be carried out in good faith. 

Disheartened with the prospect of meeting the enemy 

I The residence of a Mr. Mare. 



170 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

where he was, Waldron set sail for Kennebec. At sunset 
the same day, he anchored under the " Chffs of Parker's 
Head," — the southern point of Arrowsic Island, in the 
mouth of tlie river. 

The next day he pushed his way up the river ; and on 
reaching Merry Meeting, within twelve miles of " Abagadus- 
set Point, " the ice barred his progress. 

The troops were landed and marched to the 
Feb. 22. fort ; and at eight in tlie evening the force entered 
the works, to find them deserted. Here the 
little army quartered for the night. Bewildered by the 
numerous trails of the enemy crossing in every direction, 
the scouts returned from their pursuit. 

A council of war determined to push on to the Penob- 
scot, with a portion of the troops, and fortify a positioji near 
the river's mouth with the remainder. 

During the march of the troops around the bay, numer- 
ous fires shot up their flames in the horizon, and a burning 
dwelling-house below indicated the proximity of the enemy. 

FORTIFICATIONS ERECTED. 

The next morning the commander-in-chief embarked and 
examined the grounds, with a view to an eligible site for a 
fort. Near tlie abode of John Parker, at a point on the 
Main opposite tlie lower end of Arrowsic Island, in a cove 
convenient for a harbor, easy of access, where water for the 
supply of the garrison abounded, a site was chosen. Here 
were moored the transports ; and a large portion of the 
command was detached to build the works. 

4 

WALDRON AT PEMAQUID. 

The Major with sixty men, while the remainder of his 
force was thus engaged, sailed for Penobscot. 

Off " Gyobscot Point," appeared an Indian canoe ; and 
by the waving of the boatman's cap, it was understood 



INDIAN WARS. 171 

an interview was desired. Tlie ship's boat soon return- 
ed, bearing the intelligence that a considerable body of 
Indians with captive English people were then at Pem- 
aquid. The fortress had survived the universal confla- 
gration, or Capt. Gardiner had returned and had erected 
another defense. At all events, he was then in com- 
mand ; and the village may have been spared. Thomas 
Gardiner had been made chief of the military forces of 
Pemaquid, * in the county of Devonshire, under a commis- 
sion of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, two years 
before ; and although in the general conflagration of the 
deserted houses of the planters, on the first startling intelli- 
gence of savage barbarities, " Pemaquid, New Harbor, 
Corbin's Sound, and Widgin's were all seen on fire within 
the same two hours," ^ yet the " castle," whose existence 
was prior to that in Boston Bay and its appendages, may 
have and probably did escape destruction. Waldron moored 
his transports in the bay. Descrying a canoe speeding her 
way up the river, bearing a white captive, with whom it was 
not permitted to communicate, a party was landed for 

reconnoissance. 

Word was returned that Modockawando, the native lord 
of the Penobscots, and other sagamores, " and sundry sorts 
of Indians" were encamped near the place. Modocka- 
wando sent specific messages to Major Waldron. Captain 
Davis and a volunteer ventured on shore, and three saga- 
mores visited the transport ships. Thus an interview was 
secured, and the pledges of good faith exchanged to prepare 
the way for pacific overtures. The commander-in-chief, with 
six unarmed men, next went on shore, where suspicions of 
treacherous dealing were roused. Finding Waldron in 
force, under the cogency of this argument, though the proj- 
ect of the treaty was acknowledged, yet no captive was suf- 

1 Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 249. M. H. Soc. 
S Hubbard. 



172 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

fered to go on ship-board ; and delay in executing the treaty 
on various pretenses was contrived. Waldron and his 
attendants were searched on landing. The emergency 
required promptitude and decision. Waldron was peremp- 
tory and energetic. He demanded immediate compliance 
with treaty stipulations, in the surrender of the captive 
Sheepscot and Kennebec planters^ and the enrollment of 
a company of auxiliaries, to fight the savages on the Andros- 
coggin. The auxiliary force was declined ; and " twelve 
beaver skins apiece," with " plenty of liquor," were re- 
quired as a ransom for the captives. The ransom was 
paid. William Chadbourn, John Wannick, and Warwood 
were secured and set free. 

Suspicions of foul play augmented. On ship-board, it 
was determined to secure the release of the captives, and 
then surprise the savages and fight them. In pursuance 
of this design, Waldron, with but five men, with the ran- 
som went on shore, proposing, after careful reconnoissance, 
to return to the ships, and prepare for the encounter. But 
the plot thickened faster than his calculations matured. 

The swing of the commander's cap was the signal of 
alarm agreed upon, as a call for succor, should any emer- 
gency require it. Waldron reached the place of conference, 
and cautiously observing the ground and the arrangement 
of things, with a view to ascertain the purposes of the sav- 
ages, discovered the exposed point of a lance and other con- 
cealed weapons of war. He grasped the point, and drew 
the lance from its hiding place, and with the weapon in 
hand, went to the savages, charging them with treachery. 
The warriors threw off all disguise — rushed on Waldi'on 
to wrest from his hold the tell-tale weapon of death. 

His resolute bearing, determined attitude, and the fearful 
brandishing of the lance in his hand, kept the savages at 
bay, till the signal cap called succor to his side from the 
fleet. The devoted band were driven to the wall, and de- 



I 



INDIAN WARS. 173 

struction menaced them at every turn, from the overwhelm- 
ing force of the constantly increasing numbers of the 
Indians. The squaws mingled in the strife. One of the 
women seized a " bundle of guns," and like a deer bounded 
away with her load, into the thickets. Many of the Indians, 
at the outset, taken by surprise, and filled with consterna- 
tion, took to flight and deserted their comrades. It was a 
hand-to-hand struggle. Capt. Frost sprang on the Saga- 
more Me-gun-na-way, a notorious and bloody barbarian. Aid- 
ed by his Lieutenant Nutter, Me-gun-na-way was dragged to 
the ship's boat, and forced into the hold. Waldron had fallen 
on a pile of fire arms, with which his men now armed, suc- 
cessfully assailed the enemy; and at this juncture, the land- 
ing of the force from the ships turned the tide of battle. 
The Indians fleeing on all sides, some made for the forest 
coverts, and others to their canoes. The fire of the whites 
strewed the whole course of their flight with dead and 
dying. Those fleeing to their canoes, encountered a boat's 
company from the ships just as they were putting off from 
shore, whose deadly aim riddled one birchen canoe with her 
living freight, burying five savages in a watery grave, and 
many others were so disabled they could not paddle away. 
The chieftain, Matahando, and with him a Powwow, or Med- 
icine man of the tribe, were slain. The sister of Modoca- 
"wando and three others were made captives. Me-gun-na- 
way, hoary in years and crime, was shot at once, whose 
bones and blood have mingled with the soil of Pemaquid. 
Much booty was taken, and the enemy received a blow from 
the hand of Waldron they never forgot. His agency in 
this transaction, and the Dover sham-fight, where he again 
outwitted the crafty red men, was never forgiven, till the 
savage with his battle axe and knife, crossed out the bloody 
account in the quivering flesh of this early and distinguished 
hero pioneer of the east ! 

Sheepscot was not visited by the returning fleet. At the 



174 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

mouth of the Kennebec, after a foiir days' absence, it again 
cast anchor. An expedition was here organized, to proceed 
to Sheepscot, under Capt. Fisk. It consisted of forty men. 
The store houses of the Sheepscot planters remained ; and 
forty bushels of undamaged wheat were recovered. Two 
pieces of heavy ordnance were taken away from Sagadahoc, 
and an hundred thousand feet of boards at Arrowsic, the 
native " Tuessicke" ? ^ 

In exploring tlie ruins of the recently sacked towns, the 
remains of Judge Lake were found. Two savages, incau- 
tiously paddling to the shore, were shot. One was killed. 
The other, too, must have died, as the canoe, all bloody and 
torn, was found the next day without an occupant. 

Stationing Capt. Sylvanus Davis with a force of forty 
men, at the garrison on the Main, near the mouth of the 
Kennebec River, Major Waldron returned to Boston with- 
out the loss of a man. A captive squaw had been released 
and sent to the Kennebec Indians. A week had elapsed 
since the sailing of the fleet westward. A detachment from 
the garrison on the Main crossed over to bury the dead on 
Arrowsic, whose bodies and mangled remains had lain where 
they fell, for more than half a year. Unconscious of danger, 
unsuspicious of peril, the detachment proceeded, perhaps 
incautiously, to execute the last sad offices of humanity. 
But the savage had made the place of the dead his lair for 
the living prey. Hanging on the path of the burial party, 
its retreat was intercepted by an ambuscade. The woods 
of Arrowsic and the rock-bound shores of the lower Saga- 
dahoc once more mingled the whoops of war, with the 
echoes of musketry, and the scream of the leaden messen- 
ger of death ! Nine of the burial party were laid dead in 
their track. 

Panic stricken, and reduced by this unexpected blow, the 

1 Deed to Robert Gutch. 



INDIAN WARS. 175 

survivors, disheartened, deserted the garrison, and the re- 
gion of the Sagadahoc was left to tlie mercy of the savages, 
without an inhabitant, where towns and villages of half a 
century's growth had caused the wilderness to bud and blos- 
som. 

RETURN OF THE INHABITANTS. 

Andros ^ had been appointed to the office of Gov- 
ernor of the Ducal Territory in America. Half a 1677. 
year had elapsed since the occurrence of the sad 
events above narrated. Fearing that his master's estate, the 
Dukedom of the east, might be lost, if permitted to remain 
void of inhabitants, in June, a military organization was 
dispatched from New York, the seat of Gubernatorial au- 
thority, to rebuild the fortifications and restore Pemaquid. 

This was the first movement towards recovering the lost 
foothold of the English settlements. 

Caesar Knapton^ commanded the expedition. Landing 
on the margins of John's Bay, the fortress at Pemaquid was 
rebuilt, a Custom House erected, and a considerable body 
of troops stationed there. The place thus revived rapidly 
filled up with population ; and was called Jamestown. 
Tranquility reigned throughout the region ; and the Indians, 
disposed to peace, enterei into arrangements for trade. 
Prisoners and captured vessels were brought into Pemaquid 
and surrendered to Captain Knapton. 

Boston, Salem, Piscataqua, were visited by Government 
transports, " to invite and bring as many of the inhabitants, 
particularly fishermen driven from the Duke's Territory, as 
will come." ^ 

Andros soon succeeded in reviving the settlements about 
Pemaquid by facilitating the return "of y^ ffbrmer inhabit- 
ants." Many fishing vessels, recovered from the natives, 

1 Williamson's History, vol. i. p. 552. 

2 Pemaquid Papers, pp. 9, 11. 



176 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

were restored to their owners. Stringent regulations of 
trade and intercourse among the citizens and Indians were 
adopted ; and Captains Knapton and Brockholls, with fifty 
men and a ship of war were stationed at Pemaquid, which 
force overawed the savages and secured the peace. 

" No one on any pretence whatever," it was ordained in 
council, " doe range or goe into the woods or creeks : " 
" Pemaquid and no where else should be the place for 
trade." Fishing stages were allowed on the fishing islands ; 
but none on the Main, except at Pemaquid, near the fort. 

No Indian could visit the fishing islands ; and no rum 
could be " drunk on the side where the fort stands." 

Trading houses, or stores, were ordered to be erected 
under command, but at convenient distances from the fort, 
landward, so that a street of good breadth be left directly 
from the fort to the narrowest part of the neck, going to 
the great neck, toward New Harbor. 

" No buildings could be reared end-wise to the street," 
obstructing the water view from the fort ; " but broadways, 
with all the doors opening on the street ; — none elsewhere." 
It was ordained that all trade should be in the street and 
in front of the houses between sun and sun ; " and at the 
opening and closing of the hours of trade, " a bell should 
ring or a drum beat, every morning and ^ evening." 
Drinking and drunkenness were prohibited, both to the 
" Christians and among the natives." All persons were 
forbidden " to lye ashore in the night, upon the neck or 
point of land the fort stands upon ; " and no one, at any 
time, was to be admitted to the fort, except some few on 
occasion of business below ; " but none to goe up into the 
redoubt." 

These regulations were decreed by the Governor 
1 Pemaquid Papers, pp. 20 — 24. 



INDIAN WARS. 177 

in Council as measures of safety in the municipal 1678. 
arrangements of the city of Jamestown, to be en- 
forced by Csesar Knapton, commandant of its newly erected 
Fort Charles. 

The Massachusetts traders, however, attempted to set at 
defiance the authority of the Duke of York ; and one 
Alden of Boston, in violation of the regulations of trade at 
Pemaquid, guided by one Roads, entered St. George's river 
to beat up trade with the Indians. But Commander Knap- 
ton made a prize of the " Ketch and cargo." 

In a quarrel on board the Ketch Cumberland, 
Israel Dymot, master, in the waters of Pemaquid, 1680. 
Samuel Collins was knocked overboard and perished. 
The master of the Cumberland and a confederate, John 
Rashly, were charged with the homicide, arrested, and tried 
before a special commission to the Court of Sessions at 
Pemaquid. Thomas Sharp, the officer now in command, 
presided over the commission, John Joselyn sitting as Just- 
ice-in-chief. 

The Duke of York extended his authority into Sagada- 
hoc ; and at New York orders in Council were passed in. 
June, regulating magisterial jurisdiction there. 

The fugitive planters on the Kennebec must, thereforey 
at this date, have returned to their former homes. But 
Pemaquid, with its city of Jamestown and Fort Charles, 
was the legal center of all intercourse with the natives, and 
all the rest of the world ; and ivas the only port of entryi 
and clearance. Thus population, trade, and wealth were- 
concentrated under her protection ; and Pemaquid became 
the metropolis of the East ; and was invested with an mflu-^ 
ence and importance, as the mart of eastern trade, never 
before attained. It was at this date that buildings of stone- 
rose along her paved streets to replace those of wood, whicL 
gave to her land-locked harbor, bristling with cannon at its 
entrance, enlivened with commerce — ships of war riding iiL 

12 



178 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

its waters — a city-like aspect from the Bay below. Her 
courts, arms, and trade, with legal and warlike appendages 
of Judges, naval and military men, all conspired to make 
Jamestown of Pcmaquid a place of aristocratic importance. 
It was the climax of her power and pride as the Queen 
City of the East. 

A change in the military arrangements of the 

1681. force stationed at Jamestown of Pemaquid, assigned 
Francis Skinner to the chief command. 

This officer was required in general orders " to be very 
carefull to Prevent any disorders or Trouble amongst the 
Indians and others — to see that they be Civilly used as for- 
merly." Apprehension of further hostilities now became 
rife. The public mind was excited, and government began 
to strengthen the frontier defenses. 

EETURN OF THE SHEEPSCOT PLANTERS. 

The return tide of population had now fairly set 

1682. and flowed freely in to the eastern frontiers. 

The deserted farms of Sheepscot began to draw 
back their ancient cultivators ; and the Ducal Province was 
swollen with the influx of population. All the fishermen 
and old inhabitants were, by order of Government, " to be 
restored and protected." ^ 

An extraordinary movement was this day made 
Aug, 19. in behalf of the interests of New Dartmouth. At 

the abode ^ of Robert Gibbers, Fort Hill, Boston, 
.-assembled according to previous notice and arrangement, 
J'ohn Alyen,Thomas Gent, Christopher Dyer, Thomas Mener, 
•Eobert Scott, William Lowering, John Whit, Daniel Gent, 
•William Willcutt, John Brown, John Dyer, Caleb Ray, Eliza- 
beth Phyps, Daniel Ranisford, with " sevcrall other of y^ 
.fiformer inhabitance of Shippscutt River, who did joyntly 

^ Pemaqiiid Papers, p. 15 ; pp. 49 — 50. 



INDIAN WARS. 179 

Bind themselves to stand to severall articles of Agreement 
fFor y settling of a township on a neck of Land surveyed, 
and a town laid out thereon, generally known and called 
by y name of Mason and Jewett's neck — lying and being 
in Sliippscutt River." 

Such were the preliminary proceedings to a re-settlement 
of New Dartmouth and Edgecomb, embraced within the 
ancient out-laid town of Mason and Jewett's Neck. Pre- 
paratory to a resumption of their homes and improve- 
ments, articles of agreement were drawn, by which their 
future government at Sheepscot was to be administered. 

With the exception of " fruit trees, their barns and fenc- 
ing stuff," the previous inhabitants agreed for the common 
good " to relinquish all former rights, titles, and privileges." 
Each settler, within a twelve-month, should resume his 
improvements, or forfeit all right and title to a settlement, 
minors and apprentices excepted. 

CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS REGULATIONS. 

It was resolved, " a tract of land be laid out for A 
Min-is-tree, with a convenient place to set a meeting house 
to if best advantage for y^ town ;" — and that they should 
have a man of their own free choice ; and such a man " as 
«/* mager part of y^ town- Like.'''' 

" Noe person or persons whatsoever shall build any ves- 
sels, cut or carry away any timber, spars, fencing stuff", hay, 
thatch, &c., without the Leave, Licence and Approbation" 
of the settlers. It was further voted — " that every man, 
housekeeper, and single persons, att ^ y^ Agge of sixteen 
years, should provide three pounds of good powder and 
twelve pounds of lead bullets and swan shot — and keep a 
goodffier Loke muscet (musket) and ffowling gonne y 

This body of Sheepscot immigrants would seem, from the 
schedule of their articles of agreement, to have been con- 

1 Full act., P. Papers, pp. 49 - 5 7. 



180 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

firmed republicans in their religious and civil proclivities, 
thoroughly imbued with tlie sentiments and views of the 
colonists of the Massachusetts Bay. 

It would appear that this body and their friends 

1684. repaired immediately to the occupancy of the Mason 

and Jewett's Neck township on the Sheepscot River. 

Their original articles of settlement were put on record at 
Pemaquid — were there examined by William Shurt; and 
the subscribing witnesses made their certificate at New Dart- 
mouth, on the 16th September of this year. 

At this date, therefore, the head waters of the Sheepscot 
and the ancient clearings of the " Sheepscot farms," must 
have been re-occupied, and these early plantations recovered 
from the waste and solitude of nearly an entire decade. The 
sounds of the hammer, the axe, and the hoe — the ring of the 
blacksmith's anvil, the voice and bustle of busy life, once 
more enlivened the resuscitated town of New Dartmouth, in 
the County of Cornwall. It is not certain, however, that 
the Massachusetts emigration of the Fort Hill gathering did 
not locate on the point on the south side of Sheepscot falls 
which was the head of the neck of the Mason and Jewett 
claim, where, subsequent to this period, we have mention 
of a small fortification. The probabilities of a new location 
here, are much confirmed by the vestiges of ancient and 
populous occupancy, still traceable on the earth's surface, as 
well as from a petition ^ made shortly after this emigration, 
to the Ducal authorities, to have the rights of the emigrants 
and their possessions there secured and quieted against 
adverse claimants. 

By the energy of the Ducal Governor, Andros, the plans 
for effecting a recovery of the wasted plantations 
Sept. 8. of the desolations of King Philip's war in the east- 
ern frontiers, were executed with success. 

1 See Petition in Pemaquid Papers. 



INDIAN WARS. 181 

A royal mandate issued through the council at New York, 
to the residents of " Jamestown," the capital of Pemaquid, 
to revive the ancient " Merry Meeting" plantations. The 
inhabitants of Pemaquid erected a block house fort, at that 
point. A file of soldiers, under command of John Rowden, 
was detached from Fort Charles, to occupy the wooden 
defenses of this renowned Kennebec hamlet ; and thus resus- 
citated, " Merry Meeting" became a central and principal 
point in the settlement of the interior Kennebec precinct, 
but as an appendage to Pemaquid. ^ 

All the central points within tlie ancient dominions were 
now ro-occupied, 

FRESH INDICATIONS OF SAVAGE VIOLENCE. 

As the return tide of population rushed in full and free, 
a restlessness, foreboding renewed hostilities, was developed, 
especially on the Kennebec. 

Depositions, showing the actual state of feeling, were 
taken, and put into the hands of government. 

One Dennes, a resident on the Kennebec, swore, " that 
he heard one counted a captain among the Indians, say, that 
his heart loould never be ivell, till he had killed some of the 
English again." This blood-thirsty savage, Capt. Antonie, 
further said, "he would burn the English houses and make 
the English slaves as tliey were before." 

John Hornibroke testified, that, on a certain occasion, 
" four natives lay one night at his house." One threatened 
to stab the English with his knife ; another said, " tliat the 
hatchet hung over their heads," and " that he was weary of 
keeping the Indians from falling out with the English, who 
did threaten to burn English houses, and make them slaves, 
as they were before." 

1 Pemaquid Papers, p. 205. 



182 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

John Voarny and Will Bacon swore, that, in behalf of 
their neighbors, " to search out y" truth of y" Ingen news 
y* was going, we did take our viage ffrom Kenybecke to 
Casco." At the house of James Andrews, they learned from 
a native who was in the habit of visiting at Andrews' house, 
and had received much kindness at his hands, " that y" 
Indones was minded to rise in rebellion again, and cut off 
y" English;" and that when the time had been determined 
on among them, " he would send them a burch rine, as 
though he had brought them a letter." 

John Molton " testifyeth and saith, that, while working in 
his field chopping, good wife Cutery called to him, to luke to 
himself, for there ivas an Indeon would do him a mischief." 
On looking up, he saw a savage approaching across Mrs. 
Cutery's field. Not saying a word, the Indian rushed on 
Molton with a drawn knife in his hand, and attempted to 
stab " y" s*^ John Molton w' y" same, twice." But Molton 
so fiercely defended himself with the axe, " threatening y' 
said Indon, to cut out his braynes with y' same," that the 
savage took to his heels, persuaded that discretion was, to 
him, the better part of valor. 

These facts would indicate that, despite the remembrance 
of treachery and wrong, a degree of intimacy of intercourse, 
somewhat remarkable, existed between the natives and the 
pioneer settlers of the eastern frontier, whose roofs sheltered 
and whose bounty often fed the weary and hungry son of 
the forest. 

IRREGULARITIES AT THE CAPITAL. 

Joslyn, the head of the Judiciary at Jamestown of Pema- 
quid, as well as the venerable Shurt, had now gone to the 
grave. Irregularities had grown up at Jamestown, under 
the mal-administration of military rule. The rumor of this 
state of affairs reached the ears of the Governor at New 



INDIAN WARS. 183 

York, and led to a sharp reproof. Francis Skinner was 
admonished " that ' the looseness and carelessness of his 
command, gave sti'angers occasion to notice his extravagan- 
cies and debaucheries; that, for the future, '■'■swearing, 
drinking and profaneness, too much practiced and suffered, 
should be ivholly surpressed." Such were the sharp words 
of Captain Brockholls, to Francis Skinner, commander of 
Fort Cliarles. ^ 

PEMAQUID FOSTERED BY GOVERNMENT. 

The residents of Jamestown at Pemaquid were chiefly of 
the New York emigration. Being the capital of the Ducal 
Province in the east. Governor Andros fostered the growth 
and importance of the place. All native trade, all commer- 
cial transactions, were required to be done at Jamestown. 
Under the guns of Fort Charles, safety was assured to those 
who bouglit and sold with the Indians. Here was the port 
of entry and clearance, and the custom house ; and here 
resided Alexander Woodrop, as sub-collector and receiver 
of the public revenue. John Allen was the commissioned 
Justice and Sheriff of Pemaquid and its dependencies. 

TEMPERANCE PRINCIPLES LEGALLY ENFORCED. 

It was unlawful to sell ardent spirits, except under speci- 
fied limitations. Strong drink had become a public evil ; 
and undoubtedly was feared as a source of public calamity 
and savage outrage. Therefore, bum-boats were forbidden 
to trade from harbor to harbor. An ordinary was to be 

1 Pemaquid Papers, p. 74. 

2 Fort Charles was a redoubt, " with two guns aloft, and an out-work 
about nine feet high, with two bastions in the opposite angles, in each of 
which were two great guns and another at the gate-way. There were 
fifty soldiers, and sufficient ammunition, stores of war, and spare arms 
and provisions for about eight months "— Thornton's Ancient Pemaquid, 
p. 127. 



184 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

opened on every island or fishing place, by an approved man 
of the place, for the benefit of fishing crews, who should not 
suffer '■'■any man belonging to a boaVs crew, to sit and tipple 
to excessive drinking, or unseasonable hours.'* 

LAWS OP TRADE AND TUNNAGE DUES. 

A vessel not of the Dukedom could not make a voyage 
unless her crew owned property in or resided at Jamestown 
in Pemaquid. 

One dog only was allowed to a family. The circle of 
trade was enlarged, and two places were now opened to the 
natives : one at the Block House of the Merry Meeting set- 
tlement, and one at Pemaquid. All vessels trading or 
fishing in the eastern waters, were required to give an 
account of their voyage and take a clearance at the Custom 
House at Pemaquid. No lands located on any river, creek, 
or on the sea-board could have more than four acres front, 
and in that proportion for every fourscore acres. Religious 
duties and habits were fostered by the government, " For 
the promotion of piety it was ordered that a person be 
appointed to read prayers and the Holy Scriptures." The 
rites and services of the Church of England would, there- 
fore, appear to have been the established denominational 
feature of the religious character of tlie population of 
Jamestown at Pemaquid. 

All vessels ^ not of the Ducal state were ordered to pay 
into the public revenue — if a decked vessel — "-four quin- 
tals, and if an open boat, two quintals of merchantable fish.''* 

No vessel could enter the Kennebec or any of its waters 
which did not clear at Jamestown. 

DONGAN'S ADMINISTRATION. 

The Ducal interests had now fallen into the hands of the 
recently appointed Governor of New York, — " Thomas Don- 

1 Pemaquid Papers. 



INDIAN WARS. 185 

gan, ^ Yice-Admiral under his Royall High"'' of New York 
and Dependencies in America," after a short interregnum, 
under Lieut. Col. Brockholls. 

The residents in the Ducal Territories had petitioned 
their lord " to permit the people to have a share in the Gov- 
ernment." The Duke of York granted the prayer so far as 
to establish the popular branch of an House of " Assembly," 
chosen by the people. 

" A man of integrity, moderation, and genteel manners, 
though a professed Papist," Dongan, was instructed to call 
an " Assembly." ^ 

" The free-holders of Pemaquid and Dependencies met," 
and made election of Gyles Goddard ^ to represent the 
Ducal province of the East, in the Assemljly at New York. 

West and Palmer were commissioned to aid in the admin- 
istration of the affairs of the Eastern Dukedom ; and in the 
execution of the duties of their commission, they visited 
Pemaquid, New Dartmouth, and Sheepscot, to make and 
confirm grants of land — to correct abuses — to quiet his 
majesty's estates and possessions — to see that garrison duty 
was faithfully done — to empower civil officers and appoint 
justices of the peace and quorum — to let and establish 
excise and customs for revenue. * 

Such were the extraordinary powers of John West and 
John Palmer, Royal Commissioners of the Duke of York, 
the abuse of which made them odious to the citizens. 

MILITARY AND CIVIL DESPOTISM. 

The inhabitants of the Dukedom complained of the evils 
of their condition, growing out of their subjection to the 
will and pleasure of military authority, often exercised in a 

1 Pemaquid papers, p. 95. 

2 Holmes' Am. Annals, vol. i. p. 461, note 3. 

3 Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 131. 

* Pemaquid Papers, see Commission, pp. Ill — 113. 



18b ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

most reckless and arbitrary manner. It was matter of com- 
plaint to tlic Governor at New Yoric, that it had been the 
practice of the Commander at Pemaquid to threaten the 
dissolntion of their courts at his pleasure, — to tln-caten the 
Justices with imprisonment and with irons, and to aj)prehend 
by force of arms the King's Justices. The fishermen of 
" Sagadahoc Island" had, as was supposed, at the instance 
of Richard Patishall, been forbidden to build on the portion 
of the island used for making their fish, and were required 
to remove their warehouses and salt stores. A considerable 
population must have concentrated there at tlie date of this 
order, so that the place must have been crowded ; and though 
it is not easy to identify the island at tliis period, yet it 
undoubtedly was an ancient and well known locality, — the 
term Sagadahoc having possibly been used to designate the 
group of islands at the mouth of the Kennebec, separating 
between it and Sliecpscot Bay. 

NEW PORTS OF ENTRY DEMANDED. 

At the same time tlie petitioners of Pemaquid requested 
the Governor to assign, as ports of entry and clearance, two 
places in addition to that at Pemaquid : one at " New Dart- 
mouth in Ships-Gutt river," where it was alleged a consid- 
erable population had settled, " and many more coming" — 
promising a considerable trade in shipping " ffor maste and 
lumber ;" and " an office," or some person at Sagadahoc iu 
Kennebec river, " ffor entering and clearing." 

At each point public defenses had been erected, at the 
cost and by the enterprise of the new-comers, against the 
savages, " who had begun to menace Avar," with a view to 
cut off the new race of white men, before they should 
become too many for them. 

CONFERENCE OF THE COLONIAL GOVERNORS. 

The Governors of New York, New Hampshire, and Mas- 



INDIAN WARS. 187 

sachusetts, Dongan, Cranfield, and Dudley, with a Mr. 
Shrimpton, held a conference in New York at " fort James," 
to discuss and concert measures of defense against the east- 
ern savages, whose restlessness and menaces foreboded 
another scene of savage war. Dongan urged pacific meas- 
ures, and cherished confidence in the overtures that had 
been made, and in the success of a rigid enforcement of the 
regulations made to guard the intercourse between the red 
and white men in the Dukedom, and was adverse to all 
measures offensive to the natives. No definite concerted 
plans were agreed on. 

FIRST APPEARANCE OF EXISTING FAMILY NAMES. 

For the first time, the names of Parsons, Gyles, Cook, 
Johnson, Neal, and others, whose descendants still live in 
and about the heritage of their fathers, on the banks of the 
Sheepscot, are found among the early inhabitants of the 
Dukedom, as petitioners for tlie public good, or remonstrants 
against existing public evils. Foot, Lovering, Ray, Gunni- 
son, and Faine were now dwellers at New Dartmouth. 
Nicholas Manning was put in commission as commander of 
a company of foot soldiers, and Gyles Goddard as Lieuten- 
ant ; John Allyen, John Dolling, Lawrence Denni, Thomas 
Giles, Alex. Watrop, Thomas Sliarp, Richard Patishall, as 
Commissioners and Justices for tlie County of Cornwall. 
At New Town, Sagadahoc, John Beattery was commissioned 
as a Captain of foot. 

Nicholas Manning was appointed surveyor, sub- 
collector, and searcher of liis Majesty's customs, 1686. 
under stringent instructions and with great powers. 

DUKEDOM MERGED IN MASSACHUSETTS. 

The ancient plantations had now become generally re-oc- 
cupied, many families from the banks of the Hudson having 
removed into the Duke's Territories of the Eastern Prov- 
ince of Pemaquid. At this juncture the decease of 



188 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

1685. Charles II. elevated James II. to the vacant seat 
Feb. 16. of the throne of England. His views were arbi- 
trary, and his rule despotic. Dongan, whose com- 
mission was renewed, was instructed " to alloiv ^ no print- 
ing' press''^ in New York. Sir Edmund Andros 

1686. was commissioned Governor of New England, 
Dec. 24. and had arrived in Boston ; landhig at Pools' 

Wharf, escorted by sixty " red-coats," he marched 
" to Gibbs' house on Fort Hill." ^ Andros was instructed 
to give toleration in religious sentiments, but to encourage 
the establishment of the Church of England. ^ Accord- 
ingly he applied for one of the Boston churches for religious 
services, on tlie day of his arrival. ^ The old South was 
selected, but the proprietors protested against its use, because 
it was private property, " and they could not with a good 
conscience consent that their meeting-houses should be made 
use of for the Common Prayer ivorshipy ^ 

A Royal order ^ of this date directed that for 
Sept. 19. the future the '■'• ffort and country of Pemaquid, 
with the Greate Gunns ainmunicon and stores 
of war^'' be delivered unto Sir Edmund Andros, and 
annexed to and continued under the government, territory, 
and dominion of New England. 

Such was the aspect of the revived state of affairs, exhib- 
iting all the varied phases of a fresh population, now fully 
re-occupying the wild wastes of King Philip's war, in the 
East. 

ANDROS RESTORED TO POWER. 

Sir Edmund Andros, in virtue of his office as the Guber- 
natorial head of New England, once more ruled the eastern 



1 Holmes* Am. Annals, pp. 467 — 8. 

2 Judge Sewall's MSS. Diary. 

3 Holmes' Annals, p. 468. 

4 Pemaquid Papers, p. 131. 



INDIAN WARS. 189 

territory of this Ducal State, now merged in Massachusetts, 
as the " District of 3Iaine," — the Dukedom ceasing forever. 

The act of annexation did not pass unnoticed or 
without opposition by remonstrances from the inhab- 1687. 
itants of the late Ducal State. The citizens of " New 
Harbor," of the town of Bristol, an ancient suburban pre- 
cinct of Pemaquid, convened in town meeting, ordered that 
a petition should be forwarded to the " Hon. Governor and 
Councell of Assembly at New York," in which the plea 
was urged, — " that Pemaquid may still remain the metro- 
politan of these parts, because it ever have been so before 
Boston vms settled.''^ ^ But the prestige of the ancient 
capital of New England had gone. The plea of hoary life 
and honors could avail nothing. Pemaquid fell, and on her 
ruins Boston climbed to her position and emoluments, as 
the capital of New England. Andros made Boston the seat 
of his administration, and determined on seizing the French 
possessions on the Penobscot, to swell the bulk of his domin- 
ions. 

RECKLESSNESS OF ANDROS. 

The frigate Rose, Commander George, at Pema- 
quid, was ordered to be held in a state of readiness 1688. 
for the Governor's use. Embarking in a sloop at 
Boston, Andros sailed among the islands of Casco Bay, 
eastward bound. He entered and ascended the Kennebec 
river. Thence cruising along shore, he joined the frigate 
at Pemaquid. 

From thence he set sail for the Penobscot, and was soon 
safely moored under the Promontory of " Big-uy-duce," the 
site of the French and Indian town of the Baron de Castine. 

The wild nobleman was too wary to be surprised. Hav- 
ing descried the fleet winging its way from afar down the 

1 M. H. CoU. vol. V. p. 137. 



190 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

magnificent bay, lie had fled and secured himself and family 
in the sheltering deptlis of the forests. 

Andros landed. He entered the works: — viewed the 
deserted premises, where all had been left as it was — house- 
hold stuff, fire-arms, ammunition and cloths — the cliapel 
with its altar and pictures. The church was held sacred. 
The booty was secured. Andros returned to Pemaquid, 
met the natives, and distributed presents. 

Tlie bay, the harbor, tlie situation of Pemaquid made a 
great and favorable impression on tlie mind of the Royal 
Governor. It struck him tliat Pemaquid might become the 
great mart of the East. Porthxnd, Batli, and Bangor had 
no existence in the wildest visions of the most distant fore- 
shadowings of tlie Governor's speculations, as his imagina- 
tion peered into the distant future ! 

FORTS REBUILT. 

Decay and time had reduced the fort to a ruinous state. 
Andros ordered it rebuilt. Receiving the congratulations 
and listening to the complaints of the eastern people, 
Andros returned to Massachusetts. But his unceremonious 
visit to the establishment of the " Baron de Castine " was 
deemed a wanton outrage, to revenge which Castine excited 
his savage retainers to prepare for war. 

Great efforts were made to heal the wounded honor of 
the semi-Gaelic chieftain of Penobscot, and conciliate his 
dusky and barbarous hordes. Modockawando Avas sent 
back from Boston, laden with presents for himself and 
his braves. Peace was promising. 

ENGLISH REVOLUTION. 

But William and Mary having ascended the throne of 
England, vacated by the fugitive James Stuart, who had 
taken rofuge from the fury of his exasperated subjects in the 
heart of France, opened a new scene, and touched new 
spr'*'' >. 'action in our blood-stained history. 



INDIAN WARS. 191 

As a natiil^il coiiseqiicuce of these facts, war ensued 
between France and England, whose people were in a revo- 
lutionary state. Rival religious organizations. Popery and 
Protestantism, the one a religion of forms, the other a relig- 
ion of faith — the one sympathizing with prerogative and 
power — the other, with the rights of conscience and human- 
ity — met in a desperate struggle for the supremacy in Eng- 
land. 

French priests lashed into fury the savage hordes of New 
England, till a wave of fire and blood swept with extermin- 
ating fury over the fair reviving prospects of the eastern 
frontiers. 

Col. Tyng and Capt. Minot, with one hundred and fifty- 
six men, were detached for the eastern service, and Capt. 
Brockholls and Lieut. Weems were left in command of Fort 
Charles. 

The collision in England between the rival houses of the 
Stuart dynasty and the Prince of Orange gave a shock 
which was felt in the remotest hamlets and rudest cabins of 
the frontiers of New England. 

TREACHERY OF GOV. ANDROS. 

A partisan warfare raged. The sympathies of all the 
office-holders, appointees of the Stuart dynasty, were in the 
interests of James, and, of course, sided with the French 
influence and the assumptions of Popery, which had espous- 
ed the cause of the fugitive James. 

Andros was suspected, — indeed, was charged ivith giving' 
aid and comfort to the enemy. While at Pemaquid, it was 
said he was visited by two squaws ( one the sister of Modoc- 
awando, the native lord of Penobscot,) who "remained 
with him two days in the fort : leaving it half drunk under 
an escort — a file of soldiers : and that they carried with 
them baskets and bundles oj gunpowder and bullets. ' 

This story, taken in connection with Andros' h'tion 



192 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

in the fiigate Rose ^ to the fort of Castine, wears an aspect 
of improbability, to say tlie least. But everything fore- 
boded evil. The heavens above glowed with unnatural and 
portentous omens, " very terrible in appearance.''^ A blaz- 
ing star showed its little head through the clouds, but flung 
a tail thirty degrees in length to the zenith ; " growing con- 
tinually broader and broader, and brightest on its ^ sides." 

The administration of Andros had become odious ; 
1689. and on the report that the Governor's guards were 
Apr. 18. to " massacre ^ the citizens of Boston," the yeo- 
manry round aboiit Boston poured in, seized Capt. 
George of the Rose frigate, surrounded the defenses on 
Fort Hill, which were surrendered, and Andros captured 
therein. The Governor was imprisoned ; and the revolu- 
tion in favor of the Prince of Orange was completed in New 
England. The consequences were most disastrous to the 
frontier plantations of Maine. 

Anarchy ensued. This state of things encouraged the 
savages to renew their barbarities. 

A considerable village had grown up at '' New Harbor," 
a suburb of the capital at Pemaquid. The effacement of 
the ancient landmarks disturbed titles and disquieted the 
returning inhabitants, who complained that having been at 
great charge in rebuilding their houses, as yet they had 
" no assurance of house lots ?ior bounds of place."" 

The " customs" were onerous. They desired they should 
be taken off, " because it never used to be paid by any ffish- 
ermcn in the world, as we know of," say they, in a petition 
to Government. ^ 



1 Holmes' Annals, vol. i. p. 474, note. 

2 Hutchinson's Hist. vol. i. p. 313, note. 

3 Holmes' Annals, vol. i. p. 475. 
4M. H. Coll. vol. V. p. 137. 



INDIAN WARS. 193 

CENTRAL POINTS OP DEFENSE. 

At Dartmouth, Captain Withington, with a company of 
sixty men, had been stationed. A detachm-ent of twenty- 
four men under command of Lieut. John Jordan was 
assigned to garrison duty. The small fort on the eastern 
Sheepscot shore — ( the defense of the township on Mason 
and Jewett's Neck) — was to be occupied by a weekly 
relief from New Dartmouth. 

Newtown on the Sagadahoc, a Fort at Sagadahoc, a 
Redoubt on the Damariscotta, Pemaquid, New Dartmouth, 
and Sheepscot were all occupied as points for military 
defense. 

But the excitement of the revolutionary changes in the 
English government had pervaded the eastern settlements. 

The partisans of William and Mary became suspicious of 
the crown officers. The appointees of the Stuart family 
were suspected. Commander Brockholls ^ was denounced 
as a Papist, and as is alleged, was ordered from Pemaquidiy 
which order he disobeyed ; and being suspected of a design 
to desert to the French, was seized by the inliabitants of 
New Dartmouth, and sent to Boston, Lieut. "Weems being 
left in command at the request of the people of Pemaquid. 

The soldiery became demoralized. Desertion ensued, and 
the forces distributed by Andros at favorable points to over- 
awe the hostile natives, were dispersed. 

The state of things must have been known to the Indians. 

OPENING OP HOSTILITIES. 

The first blow was struck at North Yarmouth, which was 
entirely broken up. 

The northern margins of Merry Meeting were next swept 
by the war trail of the infuriated savages, and the houses 
of the settlers there were burned, while those who made a 



1 Answer to Andros, M. H. Soc. Cdl. vol. v. p. 394. 

13 



.J 



194 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

show of defense were slain, and the remainder made cap- 
tives, many of whom were most barbarously murdered in a 
drunken carousal soon after. Nine persons were spared 
from the island settlements and mouth of the river below, 
to be led into captivity. The mutinous proceedings at New 
Dartmouth had left the defenses there unprotected, and the 
community exposed in the heiglit of its greatest peril to the 
fury of an excited, ruthless, and barbarous foe, amid all the 
horrors of a religious and partisan warfare ! 

DESTRUCTION OF NEW DARTMOUTH. 

These circumstances invited assault. A war party passed 
from the bloody horrors and savage orgies of the sacking of 
the Merry Meeting towns over to the thriving and populous 
plantations of the Sheepscot, " called the garden of the 
East:' 

Cautiously approaching from the eastward to 
Sept. 5. the attack, the Indians surprised and secured 
Henry Smith and his family. The next day Ed- 
ward Taylor and family fell into their hands. By this time 
the alarm had roused the entire population ; and panic- 
stricken, all had fled into the forts, and secured their retreat 
before a general onslaught could be made. 

Very soon the surrounding forests echoed with the whoops 
and yells of disappointed rage. The prey had escaped. 
The entire village of New Dartmouth was consigned to the 
ilames, with here and there a solitary house left as a monu- 
jnent of mercy, standing alone amid the blackened ruins of 
a general conflagration ! The garrisoned inhabitants had 
•vainly sought to treat with the enemy for the security of 
their lives and property. The messenger, with his life in 
his hand, who had gone from the fort on this mission, was 
maltreated and murdered in the presence of his friends, 
who were powerless to save. 

JHow long the savages were held at bay, or by what means 



INDIAN WARS. 195 

those who had made the fort a refuge finally escaped, is not 
stated. ^ It is related, however, that the German popula- 
tion retired from the scene of such desolation, never more 
to return ; and the villages, so lately flourishing and so long 
inhabited, were consigned to waste and solitude for a whole 
generation. 

The forts were destroyed ; and to these ancient plant- 
ations the catastrophe was a fatal and final overthrow ; and 
to this day New Dartmouth, the Newcastle of the present, 
has not recovered the position of influence and importance 
of her ancient fame. 

OVERTHROW OF PEMAQUID. 

Pemaquid, the ancient capital of New England, 
had not yet lost the prestige of her position in the 1689. 
native mind ; and had become an object of special 
offense, as the point at which a death-blow might be struck 
at the English interest in the East. It was therefore deter- 
mined to blot out the capital of the Ducal territory, which, 
though shorn of its importance and power by the revolu- 
tionary issues of the British Empire, still was a central bar- 
rier to the barbarism of the East. 

The anarchical condition of civil authority had left it as 
defenseless and exposed as was its suburban village, New 
Dartmouth above. As we have before said, Lieut. Weems, 
alone with fifteen men, a stipendiary of the Government 
of the Massachusetts Bay, held the post and defenses of 
Jamestown. 

Thomas Gyles, a large landed proprietor and chief justice 
of the Pemaquid district, resided at this date in town. 
This eminent pioneer of the East at first had entered the 
Kennebec, and settled at Pleasant Point in Merry Meeting,. 
prior to King Philip's war. At the opening of its tragic 

1 Tradition says they were suffered to construct a small vessel, and retire 
in her, by agreement with the Indians. 



196 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

scenes, Gyles had been made a prisoner, and his wife slain 
in her garden picking beans. ^ Redeemed or escaping, he 
returned to England ; but attracted back to his wild eastern 
home, on reaching America, savage hostilities had again 
broken out, and he took up his abode on the shores of Long 
Island. 

The bleakness of the climate there disturbed him ; and 
by the overtures of Gov. Dongan, abandoning his Merry 
Meeting estates, Gyles made a new home at Pemaquid, and 
held the chief seat of the Judiciary there. He encountered 
much difficulty in the discharge of his official duties, " from 
the immoralities of a people who had long lived in lawless- 
ness." 

A descendant of Judge Gyles, made a captive at the time 
of the sacking of Jamestown, has left a narrative of the 
terrible scenes of blood enacted on tliis occasion. The sav- 
ages, numbering about one hundred warriors, had lurked in 
the siiburbs of the town some days. A wayfaring man, 
Starkie by name, passing from Jamestown of Pemaquid to 
New Harbor, was seized by them, from whom, with too 
much truth, they learned the weakness of the public defens- 
es ; that no suspicions of peril existed, and that Gyles had 
gone with his workmen, fourteen in number, to his farms at 
the falls above. 

The savages divided, — the one party to follow Gyles, and 
the other to assault the town. It was early in August. 
Those who were assigned to attack the town finally gained 
a street and effected a lodgment. Ten or twelve houses of 
stone were occupied, from which the Indians securely 
assailed the garrison till dark. 

The fort was summoned to surrender. To this the defend- 
ers replied with much sang froid, — " we are now weary and 
must sleep.^* ! ^ Daylight dawned, and the fort still held 

1 Vinton's M SS. Narrative, Archives M. H. Soc. 

2 Williamson's Hist. vol. i. 



INDIAN WARS. 197 

out. Two days the assault was persistently continued, and 
as vigorously repelled. But the assailants could not be dis- 
lodged from their coverts of stone, and had great advantage 
in the fight. Weems was at length picked out and wounded 
by the sharp shooters of the enemy, and the bravest of his 
force disabled. 

A capitulation was therefore concluded, on condition that 
Patishall's sloop should be restored, and the garrison with 
their captives and arms should be suffered to depart without 
molestation. The reduction of the place was thus effected, 
and it is said the articles of capitulation were faithfully 
observed, and that Weems and his handful of men retired 
in safety. Captains Skinner and Farnham returning from 
the islands, as they leaped on shore, were shot dead ; and 
Captain Patishall of " Paddishall's Island near the mouth 
of the Kennebec," ^ whose sloop lay at the Barbican, was 
taken therefrom and slain. 

DEATH OF GYLES. 

Meanwhile the party, some forty in number, led by 
Moxus, pursuing Gyles, came up with him at the farm some 
three miles from town, where he, with two of his sons, were 
overseeing the workmen, some of whom were gathering the 
harvest of hay in one field, and nursing the young growing 
shoots of corn in another. The Indians came upon them 
about noon. Gyles and his sons were still at the farm 
house, where dinner had just been served, when the roar of 
cannon — the alarm guns of Fort Charles — arrested tlieir 
attention, and awakened the solicitude of all. 

The elder Gyles remarked, " that the alarm guns, he 
trusted, were harbingers of good," — the announcement of 
aid from abroad. From the crest of a hillock near the 
barn, the savages immediately appeared, heralded by their 

1 Clark's Deposition. Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 105, note. 



198 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

wild whoops of war. Simultaneously with their appear- 
ance, the flash of their fire-arms revealed their purposes of 
blood and violence. Their demoniac yells mingled with 
the scream of bullets through t)ie air, and the wail of the 
dying workmen, opened a scene under the lurid and sul- 
phurous cloud of smoke, which hung heavily over the 
bloody field, both grand and awful ! m 

John Gyles and his brother James sought safety in flight, 
at the first onset. Thomas, an elder brother, reached the 
Barbican opposite the Fort, gained a fishing boat, and sailed 
away the same night. ^ All who had not fallen sought 
safety in flight. Pursued by the stout and painted red-men, 
with upraised tomahawk and unsheathed scalping knives 
gleaming in the smoky sunlight, all were scattered. The 
younger Gyles in his haste had fallen to the earth, and was 
seized and bound hand and foot. The captive boy was 
taken to a neighl)oring stack of hay. He passed his aged 
father who had been shot, pale and bloody, still tottering on 
his feet. 

In the hayfield the men lay where they were shot down ; 
and others, tomahawked, still called upon God in their 
agony for mercy ! The Indians gathered with their cap- 
tives, preparatory to their departure for the East. Not long 
after, the elder Gyles was brought in ; and in answer to the 
taunts of Moxus said, " I am a dying man, and ask no 
favors but to pray with my sons " ! The boon was granted. 
The captive boys were confided to the merciful protection 
of God Almighty. He gave them a father's counsel, and 
took an affectionate farewell with the hope of meeting them 
in that " better land," where the wicked cease from troub- 
ling. With a cheerful voice he bade his children farewell, 
having now become faint from loss of blood, " which gushed 
out of his shoes." The savages led him aside ; and adds 

1 Drake's Tragedies of the Wilderness. 



INDIAN WARS. 199 

the narrator, his own son, " I heard the blows of the hatchet, 
hut neither shriek nor groan^ His body, pierced with bul- 
lets, wa.s covered where it fell with the branches of trees. 
Such was the melancholy fate of Judge Gyles, a distin- 
guished resident of Jamestown at Pemaquid. 

FATE OF THE TOWN. 

Within a mile and one half of the town, all the captives 
were now gathered, in full view of the smoke and flash of 
the musketry and cannon of the contending parties. Am- 
buscades between the dwelling places and farms, and near 
the more frequented by-paths to the town, had surprised, 
captured, and killed most of the out-settlers. A dozen 
houses or more adorned the hamlet of Brown at New Har- 
bor, the occupants of which generally escaped. Another 
remove concentrated the captives in the heart of a swamp, 
three-fourths of a mile distant from town, — where the lurid 
clouds of battle and the din of war, from burning homes 
and butchered friends — the sacrifices to the orgies of war 
— only greeted the forlorn victims of this savage demon- 
stration. Tlie fortifications had now fallen into the hands 
of the assailants, and very soon the works, the dwelling 
houses, and shops of Jamestown of the Virginia of the 
North, the capital of the eastern Dukedom, were reduced 
to a heap of smouldering remains and ruins. Such was the 
catastrophe wliich inflicted irreparable desolation on Pema- 
quid at the hands of the warriors of Penobscot, who had 
been consecrated to this work by the benedictions of Mother 
Church of Rome, and who went from her confessional and 
altars of hallowed sacramental rites to the work of butchery 
and the blood of heretics, while their wives and children 
performed the same holy rites, and raised their pure hands 
to heaven in aid of their fathers and brothers in battle with 
, the heretics. ^ 

1 Charlevoix, Williamson's note. 



200 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

THE captives' EXPERIENCE. 

In the swamp to which they had been taken, the captive 
boys met their mother and their two little sisters, also cap- 
tives. Many of their town's people were there gathered 
in sorrow and dismay. From the lips of her boy the wife 
learned the fate of her husband. The natural burst of 
grief provoked their savage masters. The captive son was 
removed and tied to a tree, out of reach of his mother. 
Once more he looked on her who gave him life, and heard 
her voice as they all embarked for the East. " Poor babe," 
said she, " we are going into the wilderness, the Lord knows 
where ! " Their canoes now parted, and with bursting 
hearts and swimming eyes the mother and child were separ- 
ated forever ; — the mother and sisters to be redeemed, and 
the child to wander in hopeless captivity. 

At Mata-wamkeag, up the Penobscot, they encountered a 
lodge of dancing women. Young Gyles was flung into the 
midst of the circle. An old squaw led him into the ring, 
when some seized him by the hair of the head, and others 
by his hands and feet, with great violence and menaces of 
evil. 

At this moment his master entered, and bought the child 
off from the horrors of the gauntlet dance, by flinging down 
a pledge. 

THE BEAR HUNT. 

The flesh of the bear is much coveted, and is the favorite 
game in the winter hunts of the natives of the Penobscot. 
This animal burrows in the caves and dens of the earth in 
autumn, with no store of food to break his long winter fast. 
During the period of hibernation,it neither waxes nor wanes 
in flesh. If fat and well fed when it seeks its wintry repose, 
it will appear the same in spring, the tear and wear of life 
being stayed in the suspended activity of its mechanism. 



INDIAN WARS. 201 

" I have seen some," says Gyles, " which have come out with 
four whelps, and all very fat." 

The plunder of a bear's nest makes a merry lodge. An 
old squaw and a captive are stationed without the wigwam, 
who stand shaking their hands and bodies as in a dance, 
singing — " Weg-age oh nelo ivok I " — fat is my eating- 1 

THE GAUNTLET DANCE. 

Gyles, the second year of his captivity, was sent toward 
the sea, with other natives, to plant corn near the fort. 

On reaching the village of wigwams, he was greeted by 
three or four Indians who dragged him to the great wigwam, 
where, with savage yells and dances, the warriors were leap- 
ing about a James Alexander, recently captured at Fal- 
mouth. Two families of Sable Indians, whose friends had 
been lost by the attacks of English fishermen, had reached 
this point, on a scout westward, to avenge the blood of their 
Blaughtcred friends. These savages were thirsting for the 
blood of an Englishman. They rushed upon Gyles and 
tossed liim into the ring. He was then dragged out by the 
hair of his head, his body bent forward by the same painful 
process, when he was cruelly beaten over his head and shoul- 
ders. Others, putting a tomahawk into his hands, bid him 
" sing and dance Indian^ The Sable Indians again rushed 
upon him in great rage, crying — " Shall we who have lost 
relatives by the English suffer an English voice to be heard 
among us ? " He was beaten with an axe. No one showed 
a spark of humanity, save a Frenchman, whose cheeks were 
wet with tears of pity at the sorrows of the captive white- 
men. 

The trials of this scene lasted a whole day. Another 
dance was projected. Gyles had been sent out to dress a 
skin for the manufacture of leather. A friendly Indian 
sought him at his place of labor, and warned him that his 
friend Alexander had fallen into the hands of his enemies 



202 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

again, and they were searching for him. His master and 
mistress bade him fly and hide liimself, till they both should 
come and call him, which they would do when the peril was 
ended. Gyles retired and sought concealment in the fast- 
nesses of a neighboring swamp, and liad scarcely attained his 
refuge, when deafening whoops mingled with threats and 
flatteries told him that the savages were on his track. They 
sought him till evening, and then called — " Chon, Clion ! " 
But Chon would not trust them. Thus he escaped till the 
company had dispersed ; wlien he went forth from his cov- 
ert, assured of his safety by the appearance of his master 
and mistress. 

THE FRIGHT. 

Onerous and servile duties were required of captives. One 
of these, in the case of Gyles and Alexander, was that of 
toting water from a cool and distant spring to the village 
lodge. 

Wearied with toil, — in the language of Gyles — " being 
almost dead, James and I contrived to relieve our toil by 
frightening the Indians." 

At this period, llie Mohawks were a great source of alarm 
to the eastern tribes, the rumor of whose alliance with the 
English had now generally obtained. The traditions of this 
race were a commentary of deeds of daring and success, 
handed down from remote periods in the history of the abo- 
rigines of the American coast. 

The two prisoners adroitly turned this infirmity of their 
savage masters to good account, on a dark night. 

Alexander, having been sent out for water, set his kettle 
on the brow of tlio declivity, ran back to the lodges and told 
his master, he feared there were Mohawks lurking near the 
spring below, which, by the way, was environed with 
stumps. 

The braves of the tribe, with the master, accompanied the 



INDIAN WARS. 203 

captive Alexander on a reconnoissance. Approaching the 
brow of the hillside, whereon the kettle sat, James, pointing 
to the stumps, gave it a kick with his foot, by which his toe 
sent the iron vessel down the declivity toward the spring ; 
and every turn of the revolving bucket reared a Mohawk on 
every stump, the clatter of whose arms was tlie signal of 
preparation for battle ; and he who could run fastest was the 
best fellow ! The result was a regular stampede of thirty 
or forty warriors into the interior forests, beyond the reach 
" of strange Indians." 

THE CHASTISEMENT. 

Natural admiration is excited in view of acts of personal 
courage and physical prowess, and this would seem to be a 
spontaneous development of the human mind. 

At one time. Gyles, during his captivity, encountered an 
ill-natured savage. He had been cutting wood, which was 
bound up with thongs, and borne in bundles to the wigwam. 
While thus engaged, a stout, ill-natured young fellow pushed 
him on to the ground backwards, sat upon his brea,st, pulled 
out his knife and menaced him with death, saying — "Ae 
never had yet killed one of the English.'" 

Gyles replied — " he mig-ht g-o to ivar, and that would be 
more manly than to kill a poor captive who was doing' their 
drudgery y But the savage began to cut and stab liim on 
the breast, in defiance of all expostulation. Provoked to 
desperation. Gyles seized the Indian by the hair of his head, 
and tumbling him off, followed up the movement with his 
knees and fists, till copper-skin cried enough. On feeling the 
smart of his wounds, and seeing the blood which fell from 
his bosom, " Gyles at him again ;" bade him get up, and not 
lie there like a dog ; reproaclied him with his barbarities and 
cowardly cruelties to other poor captives ; and put him on 
his good behavior hereafter, in the peril of a double dose 
of fist and foot cuffs. 



204 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

Gyles was never after molested, and was commended by 
the tribe for inflicting the merited chastisement. 

Metallic vessels for culinary use were not required by the 
natives among whom Gyles was a captive. A birchen buck- 
et filled with water, heated by the immersion of red hot 
stones, would speedily boil the toughest neck-pieces of beef. 

The necessity of lucifer matches was forestalled by rapid- 
ly revolving the sharpened point of an upright piece of wood 
in the socket or cavity of a horizontal base, till a blaze was 
kindled. 

The incantations of the pow-wow, among the unchristian- 
ized natives, prevailed. For the dead great mourning was 
made. In the shadowy and somber stillness of evening twi- 
light, a squaw breaks the silence, wandering over the highest 
cliff-tops, near her lodge, crying in mournful and long-drawn 
numbers, — " Oh hawe hawe ! " 

But the season of mourning being ended, the relatives of 
the dead end their sad memories in a ..feast; and the be- 
reaved is permitted to marry again. Purchased by a French 
trader, during the eastern expedition of Col. Hawthorne, 
Gyles, after a servitude of nine years, was restored to his 
home and surviving friends ; and for many years, served his 
government in the capacity of an Indian interpreter, and 
in the army. 

SAVAGE CRUELTIES. 

Their captives were sometimes cruelly treated and barba- 
rously murdered. The elder brother of this captive Gyles, 
after three years of captivity, attempted to escape and was 
re-taken. On the lieights of Castine, overlooking the waters 
of Penobscot Bay, he was tortured by fire at the stake : his 
nose and ears were cut off and forced into his mouth, which 
he was compelled to eat ; and then he was burnt as a diver- 
sion to enliven the scene of a dance. 



CHAPTER V. 



WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 



MAJOE CHURCH. 

The renewal of savage barbarities in the East 
roused Massachusetts to arms. Chastisement and 1690. 
the recovery of the captives were the great purposes 
of the contemplated military operations. Major Church, 
the hero of King Philip's war — the terror as he had been 
the scourge of savage men — was designated to command 
the expedition. 

Next to Miles Standish of Plymouth, the name of Benja- 
min Church, as an early successful military leader, stands 
out in boldest relief on the annals of New England. The 
arena of his glory and success was the field of frontier serv- 
ice. A native of Plymouth, too, endowed with great benev- 
olence of heart, fortified with natural sagacity and fortitude, 
of reputed piety and a high sense of honor as a frontier 
man — a volunteer — or backwoodsman — he entered the 
ranks at the commencement of King Philip's war. 

His fortitude, perseverance, and tact, together with great 
personal prowess, gave him eminence. Indeed, he put to 
shame the movements of the regular army, and, in fact, 
subdued the hordes of Philip, breaking down in regular 
succession all his great captains, and scattering all the com- 
binations of savage power. 



206 ancient dominions of maine. 

annawon's fall. 

To-to-son, Tis-pa-quin, and the great An-na-won, Philip's 
confederates and friends, all were out-generalled by Church. 
An-na-won, the last of the trio of savage heroes of King 
Philip's reign of terror, was at length made prisoner by 
Church. On the night of his capture, by the light of the 
moon beams, rising from his dewy couch under the open 
canopy of heaven, An-na-won approached his conqueror 
with a fearless and stately mien. Falling on his knees 
before him, — " Great Captain, " he cried, " you have killed 
Philip and conquered his country ! I and my company are 
the last ! Therefore, these," ( holding out to him Philip's in- 
signia of royalty) "belong unto you." The shoulders of the 
hero of Philip's fall were at once invested by the hands of 
An-na-won with robes of wampum curiously wrought in 
figures and flowers of the forms of birds and beasts, with 
black and white, edged with human hair dyed in scarlet 
colors. The whole was girded with a belt ornamented with 
a pendant star, from the shoulders reaching to the ancles. 
But the magnanimous and fearless Annawon, in defiance 
of the entreaties and remonstrances of his brave captor, 
was slain by the Plymotheans after his surrender. 

Having successfully encountered the enemy at Casco, 
who retired from the field, Church next appeared on the 
plains of Brunswick, and in the heart of the enemy's coun- 
try on the Androscoggin, forcing the very doors of his 
strong-holds. 

Foremost in the fight, stripped to his shirt and jacket, 
Church plunged into the water, crossed the river, and 
rushed into the south gate, while the Indians fled out at the 
north. Some took to the water ; others ran under the falls ; 
and most perished, either under the deadly aim of the fero- 
cious frontiers' men, or while struggling for life against the 
current, were swept under the waters of the rushing An- 
droscoggin ! 



WAR OP THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 207 

To the fagitives, Churcli scut a message, telling the 
Indians who he was, and whence he came. The captives 
who had been taken were summarily " knocked on the liead^^ 
as an example. 

Fresh from the blood-stained swamps of Philip's conquest, 
Church came like the Angel of Deatli across the war-path 
of the red-man of the East, his portentous name filling all 
with dismay, from the papoose in the wigwam to the tawny 
brave on the scout. 

The presence and movements of Church disconcerted the 
savages, dissipated their combinations, scattered their con- 
federacies, and broke up their projected enterprises. 

Passing the Kennebec with Gov. Phips, Church landed at 
Pemaquid, and from thence ranged the Penobscot. Return- 
ing, he entered the Kennebec, and ascended that river. In 
the ascent of this expedition, his boats encountered the 
enemy in their canoes. After a sharp but successful engage- 
ment, he routed the savages, and pursued them so fiercely 
up the river that they abandoned their canoes, and took to 
the woods. 

Church pursued them on shore, and gave them no rest in 
their forest shelter. The chase continued to " Ticonnet," 
the site of their homes. Their lodges, their fort, all were 
consigned to the flames by the panic-stricken braves, who, 
leaving their stores of corn for plunder, continued their 
flight into the dense and impenetrable swamps of the unex- 
plored interior. From Pemaquid as a center, he scoured 
the country in all directions, carrying devastation and dis- 
may, fire and sword, to the homes of the savages. 

CONDITION OF COUNTRY. 

Many panic-stricken surviving settlers, crouching 
amid the ruins of this war-wasted section, were met 1692. 
by Major Church in the course of these expeditions, 
who besought him to procure their removal from the scene 



208 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

of their sorrows and peril, whose prayers he could not heed. 
Left thus to their own resources, the remaining inhabitants 
adopted a system of defense, founded in the structure of 
" Garrison Houses.''^ 

The garrison house was a structure of timber, rectangular 
in shape — bullet-proof — pierced with port-holes from angu- 
lar projections, coverts and sentry posts surmounting the 
corner elevations, which commanded every approach. The 
garrison house, often stockaded, usually crowned some 
height, or crested some land-swell in the center of a consid- 
erable clearing, so that the environing thickets and copses 
of wood could not be made a covert to the prowling savage 
within musket range. 

Here the families of a hamlet gathered on hearing the 
report of the alarm guns, under the guard of their fathers, 
brothers, and neighbors : — the women often acting the part 
of guardsmen, day and night — while the males in detach- 
ments went to their clearings to sow and reap, one of whom 
usually stood sentinel, while the others wrought by turns, 
every man armed. 

Thus the surviving inhabitants endeavored to maintain 
their foothold in these wilds amid savage alarms, determined 
to fight rather than to fly. 

The adoption of this mode of life at length made the 
frontier-man of the East more than a match for his wily foe. 
This adjustment of the homes of the frontier inhabitants to 
the emergencies of their condition finally worried out the 
savage ; and the mode of defense being aptly suited to meet 
the peculiarities of savage warfare, the pioneer became as 
wary and resolute, more fearless and successful than the 
Indian, which made it very difficult, if not impossible, for 
him to attack and destroy the settler in his usual covert 
way, by surprise. 



WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 209 
BUILDING OP FORT WILLIAM HENRY AT PEMAQUID. 

Sir William Phips, a native of the Sheepscot, and early 
schooled in the discipline and perils of a frontier life, had 
become a British nobleman, and had been appointed to the 
head of gubernatorial authority in the Province of Massa- 
chusetts Bay. He took special interest in the welfare of 
his native section. 

Major Church having in charge the military operations 
within the eastern frontier, in August, with an army of near 
five hundred men, made his rendezvous among the ruins of 
the dismantled fortress of Pemaquid, with orders to rebuild 
it with stone and lime, according to the most approved arts 
of war. But Church was no engineer, and looked on such 
defenses as worse than useless — as " only nests for destruc- 
tions.''^ 

But Governor Phips, detaching Church to beat up the 
haunts of the enemy in their forest strong-holds, with two 
companies, rebuilt the defenses of Pemaquid. Twenty rods 
from high-water mark, on the eastern shore a league above 
the point of Pemaquid, on the margin of the inner harbor, 
— a land-locked basin made by the river's mouth at its 
debouclier into the bay — a site was chosen. A quadrangular 
wall was reared, whose perimeter measured seven hundred 
and forty-seven feet, and one hundred and eight feet between 
the exterior walls across. These walls founded in lime and 
mortar, were built of stone, under the direction of Captains 
Wing and Bancroft, engineers. The wall facing seaward 
was twenty-two feet high on the south front ; on the harbor 
side to the west, eighteen feet high ; on the north, facing 
the river and village, ten feet ; and on the east, fronting 
the main land at the point of its junction with the penin- 
sula, where once was a causeway, twelve feet ; the whole 
surmounted with a round tower, rising from the angle in 
the south-western bastion, near thirty feet. 
14 



210 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

Eight feet from tlie ground, the walls were six feet thick, 
pierced with ports for a tier of twenty-eight guns, and some 
eighteen were mounted. Tims defended, the work was 
named Fort William Henry. This work was a formidable 
harrier against the incursions of the eastern savages, and a 
center of safety to a considerable circle of surrounding 
territory. The indefatigable Church continued his terrify- 
ing pursuit of the savages, throughout the fastnesses of their 
forest wilds, who fled before him, leaving their corn, " bea- 
ver and moose skins," to become a prey. 

CONDITION OF THE NATIVES. 

Up to this period, great vicissitudes had checkered 
1696. the historic scene at Pemaquid and Sagadahoc ; 
which also deeply marked the condition of the exas- 
perated and forlorn natives, who began to realize terrible 
visions of want and death in the bloody footprints of war 
all over their wilderness home, and to find there were blows 
to take as well as to give. 

CONVERSE. 

Converse, the friend and subordinate of Church, a brave 
and faithful officer, became an object of dread as a scourge 
of the marauding red-men. His brave and successful 
defense of the garrison at Wells was a memorable act of 
intrepidity. To the overtures to him for capitulation, he 
replied, — '■'- 1 loant nothing of you but men to fights As 
commander-in-chief of the eastern forces, he was at Sheep- 
scot and Pemaquid pursuing the wild savage witli so much 
persistence and success that, feeling themselves " hunted to 
the mountains by the terrifying Converse," thirteen saga- 
.Biores repaired to Pemaquid, suing for peace ; in the nego- 
tiations therefor, John Wing, Nicholas Manning, and Benja- 



WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 211 

uiin Jackson were commissioners. ^ The conditions of a 
perpetual peace were arranged, and hostages given as 
pledges of good faith. 

FRENCH INFLUENCES. 

But the interests of the French Government, which had 
espoused the cause of James, in sympathy with Romish 
Cliurch purposes of hostility to the reign of William and 
Mary in England, demanded the violation of this treaty. 
The Church of Rome, in the great civil contest between the 
partisans of James and the government of William and 
Mary, had an eye to her own supremacy in England. Jes- 
uit priests, therefore, exerted their influence over the savage 
mind to re-open tlie sluices of war. Of the ecclesiastical 
emissaries, Sebastian Ralle of the Norridgewock Mission 
on the Kennebec, Thuray and Bigot on the Penobscot, 
were the most influential and conspicuous. It was the 
theme of their Sabbath service, to persuade their native 
hearers " that it was no sin to break faith with heretics^'' ! 
" that Jesus Christ, the blessed, luas murdered by English- 
men'''' I Religion was thus made a torch of war. Modock- 
awando, the sachem of Penobscot, and Bomaseen, the sachem 
of the Kennebecks, " whose residence was at the ancient 
seat of their sagamores, Norridgewock," - summoned their 
braves to gather fresh trophies of blood in revenging on the 
perfidious white man the death of Jesus, as well as the 
wrongs of their country. To ascertain tlie effects of recent 
violence done to neighboring settlements, Bomaseen and 
two other natives, presuming that at P-e-maquid no suspicion 
of their agency in the bloody transactions at Dover, York, 
and Piscataqua had reached, visited the fort, then under 
command of March, disguised as " travelers from Canada." 

1 Williamson, vol. i. p. 640. 

2 Drake's Book of Indians, ps. 110. 



212 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

But being known, the party was seized, and the chieftain, 
Bomaseen, was sent a captive to Boston, where, with Sheep- 
scot John, one of the hostages of the late treaty, all were 
held in confinement. 

MISSION OF SHEEPSCOT JOHN. 

To negotiate an exchange of prisoners and effect a recon- 
ciliation, John was sent east. At Rutherford's Island, in 
the mouth of Damariscotta river, a league from Fort Wm. 
Henry, by his influence a body of natives was gathered. 
They came in a flotilla of fifty canoes ; and a cessation of 
hostilities for thirty days was arranged. 

The armistice was understood to be a prelude to a treaty 
of peace ; but in arranging the preliminaries, differences 
arose, and the captious savages departed in disgust. 

From the conference of peace, they rushed with unsheath- 
ed scalping knife and gleaming tomahawk into war. 

A detachment of ten men from the fort at Pcmaquid, who 
were rowing a flat boat around a liigh rocky point above the 
Barbican opposite, were, shot, four being killed and six 
wounded. It was the act of the disaffected savages, who 
had left the conference at Rutherford's Island in disgust, 
and had thus defeated the pacific mission of Sheepscot John. 

RETRIBUTION. 

Some of the eastern sagamores visited the fort. 
1696. Fort Wm. Henry was now in command of Capt. 
Feb. 16. Chubb. The avowed object of the visit was to 
negotiate an exchange of prisoners. But the 
anguish of his soldiers, whose wounds, yet unhealed, ren- 
dered them unfit for duty, together with the recollection of 
their fallen comrades, fired Chubb's resentment and the 
vengeance of his command to sucli a degree that an assault 
was made on the unsuspecting and unarmed Indians. Two 
chieftains were slain. The others were captured, excepting 



WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 213 

Toxus and some of his more athletic friends, who broke 
through their restraint, and escaped " to scatter fire-brands, 
arrows, and death," till the wilds of the whole coast were 
enkindled in the flames of war. Pasco Chubb, the author 
of the perfidy, was never forgotten, nor was he forgiven till 
blood washed out his guilt, and from savage hands was 
meted out the vengeance by them kept in store for him 
against a day of retribution that overtook him at Andover, 
as he and his wife returned homeward from public worship. 

Iberville's expedition. 

The reduction of Fort Wm. Henry at Pemaquid had 
become a matter of settled policy with the French. At 
Quebec an expedition had been projected, and placed under 
the conduct of Iberville as chief in command. Two ships 
of war and two companies of soldiers, to be re-inforced by 
Castine from Penobscot and Indians of the St. John's river, 
were selected for the expedition. As Iberville approached 
the scene of his operations, the English ship Newport, Capt. 
Paxen, with the Province Cutter, on their passage to the 
Bay of Fundy to intercept French stores, together wdth the 
ship Sorlings, Capt. Eams, encountered him. 

A battle ensued. The Newport struck her colors and 
became a prize, the other vessel escaping under a fog-bank. 
Thus encouraged and re-inforced, Iberville pressed all sail 
for Pemaquid. Off Penobscot, Castine joined the expedi- 
tion with a flotilla of canoes, bearing two hundred warriors, 
among whom presents were distributed to stimulate their 
valor. 

The harbor of Pemaquid was soon swarming with men- 
of-war, while fleets of native craft, whose shuttle forms 
everywhere cut and curved the peaceful waters of the bay, 
discharged hordes of savage and war-clad men to invest the 
place. 

On the first assault, four men of the invading force were 



214 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

slain. The place was summoned to surrender. Mounted 
with fifteen guns, the fortress was held by about one hund- 
red men, with ammunition and food in abundance. The 
summons was rejected. Tlie first day was consumed by the 
investure of the town. On the night ensuing, fortified 
redoubts were constructed on the adjoining and command- 
ing heights, where a mortar battery was planted. 

This battery opened its fire on the town and 
Aug. 15. fortress with shell and round shot. The effects 
of the shell were such as to fill the soldiery with 
dismay. At the same time the overtures for a surrender 
were renewed, and a missive under the hand of Castine 
intimated that if taken by storm, the captives and the place 
would be given up to plunder and tlie mercy of the savages. 
This menace had the desired effect. The fears of the 
defenders triumplied over their valor. The "Chamade" 
was beaten, and the gates of the fortress were opened ; and 
to save tiie garrison and captives from savage violence, they 
were hurried to a neighboring island, and guarded by a 
strong detachment of French marines. 

Thus a second time fell Pemaquid to the com- 

Aug. 18. bined forces of the French and Indians, by the 

cowardice of its defenders. Motives of humanity 

may have had their influence. The town was plundered, 

and the fort dismantled. 

Col. Gedney of Salem immediately marched with five 
hundred men through the eastern country to the scene of 
the desolation of Pemaquid, in quest of the enemy, who 
had long before departed. Chubb was arrested for coward- 
ice, and cashiered. ^ A shallop with prisoners from the 
eastward reached Boston, and brought the first intelligence 
of the fall of Pemaquid, together with the capture of the 
English man-of-war, off Mt. Desert. Major Church was in 

I Annals of Salem, vol. iv. p. 825. 



WAR OP THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 215 

Boston at the time, and was commissioned to visit again the 
wilds of the frontiers of Maine. An expedition was pro- 
jected to pursue the French naval force, and engage the 
enemy on land, if possible. Church touched at York, east- 
ward bound, and sent his scouts through the neighboring 
forests to beat up the savage haunts. But no success attend- 
ing the movement, no enemy appearing, he sailed for Mon- 
hegau Island. Col. Gedney, from York as a center, with 
detachments of friendly Indians and volunteers penetrated 
the country by a system of operations called scouting ; and 
thus filled the enemy with alarm, and subjected him to 
perpetual surprise. The combined movements of the enemy 
were all thus defeated ; and breaking up into small bands, 
they only prowled in the neighborhood of the garrisons to 
surprise and cut off the unwary. 

Mooring his transport ships in the island harbor of Mon- 
hegan, Church embarked his forces under cover of darkness 
in whaleboats for the main. Hard rowing brought him to 
the beach of Ovvls-head at daybreak. The boats were con- 
cealed, and the scouts sent out, who only traced a trail a 
week old. At night all re-embarked, prosecuting their voy- 
age up the bay and among the islands, till in Camden, at 
the base of the Mathebestuck mountains, day again dawned 
on them, when all landed, and concealed their boats. Thus 
night was turned into day for labor, till entering the river 
and ascending to a fall, some of the savages, as they paddled 
their boats down to the sea, were surprised, and were shot 
from the river banks, while those who escaped alarmed 
the whole region, and the enemy fled to the wild interior 
beyond reach. 

FRUITLESS SEARCH FOR THE FRENCH FLEET. 

The Arundel, the Orford, and Sorlings, with a fire-ship 
and tender, also scoured the ocean off Pemaquid, but the 
French fleet had escaped, and the expedition was abortive. 



216 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

Church continued to ravage the coasts, destroying and 
desolating the native settlements, without reaching the 
enemy or bringing him to action, till superseded in the 
command ; and had he been well sustained by his govern- 
ment in the execution of his purposes and plans, he 
no doubt would have made the fate of King Philip tlie 
experience of the eastern braves. From a negro captive, it 
was ascertained that the savages, learning of Church's con- 
templated movement, by a prisoner who had escaped from 
his confinement in Boston, had all retired from the sea- 
board an hundred miles into the interior, and therefore no 
chastisement could be meted out to them for the destruction 
of Pemaquid and its precincts. 

MARCH IN COMMAND. 

Major March, being entrusted with the eastern 
1697. defenses after the unsuccessful operations of Col. 
Hawthorn, who had superseded Church, with fi.ve 
hundred men entered on his arduous duties with commend- 
able energy. 

A " prudent and popular officer," he adopted the plan of 
scouring the country from post to post, (a cordon of which 
enclosed the frontiers,) by ranging parties, which had been 
the favorite movements of Major Church. 

BATTLE OF THE DAMARISCOTTA. 

In the prosecution of this system, early in the 

Sept. 9. autumnal month of the first year of his command, 

heading a small detachment of his troops, March 

entered the waters of the Damariscotta, which happened to 

fall in the line of his coast range. 

Ever on the alert, the Indians descried the fleet of whale- 
boats from the heights of Walpole ; and the fleet-footed 
runners had correctly detailed the progress of March up the 
river, and learned the point of his debarkation, near which 



WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 21T 

an ambuscade was arranged. On touching the shore, spring- 
ing suddenly from their covert, the tall-grown forests far 
and near echoing the fatal death-cry, the Indians poured 
on March and his men a shower of leaden hail, whose 
fire flashed the white man's death-welcome on every side. 

But the undaunted March immediately rallied his waver- 
ing troops, and led them to the charge in the face of the 
murderous fire. 

With fixed bayonets his men plunged into the thickets, 
routing the savages at every point, who retreated to the 
woods and to their canoes, leaving their dead behind them ! 

It was a bloody and desperate encounter. Twenty-five 
men lay dead or wounded in their track at the place of 
debarkation, showing the unerring certainty with which each 
warrior marked his man, while the gory body of the fallen 
brave, torn by the white man's steel, was left to the gaze 
of his foe, in attestation of the terrific death-struggle by 
which the intrepid March and his devoted band had won the 
day. 

The battle of the Damariscotta closed the scenes of King 
William's war, during which want and famine had multi- 
plied the horrors of the desolation. '' Many, ^ both Indians 
and English prisoners, were starved to death:" — "and 
some eating their dogs and cats, died horribly ^ famished." 

The peace of Ryswick hushed the voice of war, 
and gave promise of tranquility to the contending Sept. 11. 
nations. As the songs of peace began to be 
heard amid the wilds of the " Ancient Dominions of Maine," 
projected treaty engagements were renewed to quiet the 
remnants of the savage race. Public measures for assuring 
safety to the frontiers were not abated. Garrisons, stockade 

1 Williamson's Hist. vol. i. p. 646, note. 

2 Mather's Magnalla, p. 556. 



218 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

forts, fortified houses constructed of massive timber, bullet- 
proof with flankers jutting from opposite angles, now rose 
in all the settled sections of the East, affording a tolerable 
asylum to the distressed inhabitants of the eastern frontier. 

These fortified strong-holds, usually points of concentra- 
tion, had served to draw the attention of war parties away 
from the more common abodes, so that more of tiie farm 
houses than usual remained imconsumed. Many planters 
abandoned their possessions to the destroyer, and departed, 
no more to return. Desolation, decay, and solitude reigned 
over the half-opened clearings, which everywhere met the 
eye and saddened the prospect. Such were the vestiges of 
a conflict originating mainly in the revolutionary issues of 
a struggle between power and prelacy on the one hand, the 
sovereignty of the people and the rights of conscience on 
the other. 

The partisans of the fugitive monarch were papists ; 
while those who supported the autlprity of William and 
Mary were protestants. Hence the zeal and cruelty of big- 
oted priests, and the frenzy and fanaticism that marked the 
progress of the war. 

PIRACIES. 

The Treaty of Brunswick^ gave new promise 

1699. of repose to Maine. Apprehensions of savage 
June 7. alarms gradually subsided, and gave fresh impulse 

to those engaged in promoting the re-settlement of 

Maine. ^ m 

Kid and Bradish, whose buccaneering had greatly 

1700. disturbed the coast settlements, were now captured. 
Summoned before the Legislature in Boston to give 

an account of his conduct, Kid was remanded to England 

1 Annals of Warren, pp. 28—33. 

2 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 31 



WAR OP THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 219 

for trial, where he was condemned and executed. Sum- 
mary proceedings relieved tlie eastern waters of these 
scourges of the sea. 

The deep bays, bold headlands, and numerous harbors of 
the ancient dominions of Maine afforded peculiar facilities 
for freebooters, and a favorite resort, whose early visits yet 
linger in the traditions of our day, and have left impressions 
in the public mind, so deep that tliey are traced in the gen- 
erations past, whose successive explorations of the bowels 
of the earth in search of hid treasure mar our soil, and 
afford a clew to that mysterious movement in the popular 
mind which brings men from distant places to expend their 
time and toil in " money digging." 

The bed of the Sheepscot, below the site of the ancient 
New Dartmouth, for a whole summer was dragged and 
drawn, in hope of raising one of Kid's chests of treasure, 
by men who went down in submarine armor, a year or two 
since. 

QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 

William, the head of the House of Orange, by 
his decease prepared the way for the ascension of 1702. 
Anne, the daughter of James, and the sister of Mar. 8. 
Queen Mary. James II., the fugitive heir of the 
ho'tse of Stuart, was also dead. But a reputed son of the 
deceased ex-monarch, known in English history as " the 
Pretender," aspired to the vacant seat of authority. The 
crown of France supported the pretension ; and to make 
good these pretensions, the dogs of war were again loosed 
on the defenseless frontiers of New England. Government 
had justly become alarmed at the malign influence of the 
clergy of the Romish Church, almost entirely represented 
among the natives by French priests. A prominent object 
with Government was, the breaking down of this ghostly 



220 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

power by separating the savage heart from the hold of his 
religious teacher. 

Those undisguised efforts to sunder the ties binding the 
shepherd to his flock became a fruitful source of envyings, 
jealousies, and irritation. 

Says Penhallow, " I asked one of their chief sachems 
wherefore it was that his people were so much bigoted to 
the French, considering their traffic with them was not so 
advantageous as with tlic English." The savage gravely 
answered, " that the Friars taiig'ht them to prai/, but the 
English never di^^^ I There was too much truth in this 
reply. The Indian had met the Englishman only to know 
him, and to suffer at his liands from his insatiable desire of 
gain and skill in the subtilities of trade. The Frenchman 
came to his pagan soul with the knowledge of his faith and 
of his God, and showed more zeal to gain his confidence and 
affection than to secure his furs. 

The exuberance of a virgin soil, the value of the fisher- 
ies, the vast resources of mast and spar timber, still strongly 
attracted the returning tide of population. 

Dudley's administration. 

A commission from Queen Anne sent Dudley into Boston 
harbor, as head of the Government of Massachusetts Bay. 
The foundations of Fort William Henry remained unbroken. 
The walls were also entire. The entrenchments were per- 
fect. Governor Dudley proposed the rebuilding of the 
Pemaquid fortress. War between France and England 
had actually been renewed, in consequence of the move- 
ments of the Pretender. 

French priests, emissaries of Rome, became active and 
zealous fomenters of the strife, and excited, if they did not 
plan, a fierce border war. Tlie colonial government was 
not idle. It actively endeavored to counteract the power 
and defeat the machinations of the French clergy and 



WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 221. 

Popish missions. But the deep, dark storm-cloud still 
gathered ; and its distant mntterings waxed louder and 
louder, as the horizon darkened. 

No measures of courtesy, no presents, nor the 
renewal of treaty obligations could avert the evil. 1703. 
The whites were not faultless in the agitating causes 
of the perils of the day. At Penobscot a party of lawless 
men visited and despoiled the residence of the Baron de 
Castine, while the Indians began their mischief on the 
waters of the Kennebec. 

But the desolation of former wars had left the ancient 
dominions of Maine quite a wilderness. The paucity of its 
inhabitants may have been its best protection ; for excepting 
a skirmish or two on the Kennebec, no action of interest 
occurred. Major March, Church, and Col. Walton scoured 
the country, and kept the enemy in a state of perpetual 
alarm, driving the savages to seek asylum in the deep inte- 
rior forests bordering on the St. Lawrence river. 

DEATH OP AR-RU-HAWIK-WABEMT. 

Col. Walton struck a severe blow at the enemy in 
Sagadahoc. He had made his bivouac, during a 1710. 
scout, on one of the islands of the Sagadahoc waters. 
His camp fires allured a company of savages, who had vis- 
ited the coast in search of food from the neighboring clam 
banks. Misled by appearances, the camp fires were taken 
for a lodge of their tribe. Tiie Indians, approaching the 
camping grounds, fell into the power of Walton's troops ere 
their mistake was discovered. 

The savages took to flight, but were surrounded, and 
their retreat cut off. Ar-ru-hawik-wabemt, chief of the 
Norridgewocks, of undaunted spirit, active, bold, and reso- 
lute, together with his wife and family became prisoners of 
Walton. The Indians had eluded all efforts of the scouts 
to discover their secret places of retreat. When questioned 



222 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

as to the hiding places of his braves and friends, the bold 
chieftain answered not. When menaced with death for his 
contumacy, " a laugh of contempV^ was his only reply. He 
was inflexible, and at once was turned over into the hands 
of the savage allies of Walton for torture and death. Per- 
ceiving the perilous extremity to which her spouse was 
reduced, the affection of the wife triumphed over her patri- 
otism ; and to avert the impending fate of her husband, she 
discovered all she knew. It was, however, too late. The 
phantom of hope had cruelly mocked her love ! Ar-ru- 
hawik-wabemt was put to the torture, after the approved 
manner of the savage tastes ; and the blood and ashes of 
the Norridgewock brave were mingled with the soil, or 
poured out into the waters of Sagadahoc. m 

The condition of the Indians was forlorn in the extreme. 
Cold, hunger, sickness, the battle-ax and scalping-kiiife, had 
wasted one-third ^ part of the aborigines of Maine. The 
old meu had become weary of the war, and anxious for 
peace. 

FALL OF NOVA SCOTIA. 

The inhabitants of New England resolved to make the 
war offensive as well as defensive. Nova Scotia, as one of 
tlie most accessible points of French and Indian aggression, 
was singled out for conquest. Col. Nicholson, with an ade- 
quate naval and land force, had invested Port Royal, the 
capital of Nova Scotia, reduced the place, and captured the 
French armies ; and with the fall of its capital. Nova Scotia 
became an English province. 

Hostilities between the crowns of England and 
1713. France now ceased, and by the Treaty of Utrecht, 
Oct. 5. Acadia became henceforward a British possession. 

1 Penhallow, p. 60. 



WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 223 
RE-SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTRY. 

The success of the British arms had its etfect on the sav- 
age mind, and tended to detach it from the interests of the 
French nation. This result would seem to have 
been consummated by the Treaty of Portsmouth. July 13. 
The . public mind became assured of unwonted 
security, which contributed powerfully to the re-population 
and revival of the desolated homes of the ancient dominions 
of Maine. Sad was the picture of waste. " More than one 
hundred miles of sea-coast, once interspersed and adorned 
with flourishing settlements, improved estates, and comfort- 
able habitations, ^ now lay devastated." Title deeds, rec- 
ords, all were burnt or lost ; and so long a time had elapsed 
since the waste of many places, that the sites of the towns, 
clearings, and plantations had resumed the aspect of orig- 
inal solitudes. 

To adjust conflicting titles and quiet claimants. Govern- 
ment created " a Committee of eastern claims and settle- 
ments.'" It was recommended in the revival of the wasted 
towns, that the plan of concentration of population should 
be adopted. Hence twenty or thirty families were settled 
on three and four acre lots at the sea-side, with outlands 
to suit their desires. This village system of re-planting the 
desolate townships was a most fortunate expedient. Mutual 
aid, combination of strength for defense and in making pro- 
vision for public safety, by the erection of strong-holds, 
" Garrison houses," were all secured thereby. Government 
dictated the number as well as mode of settlements to be 
resumed, and designated the localities. 

LOCALITIES. 

The mouth of Sagadahoc, probably on the Sheepscot 



1 Williamson's Hist. vol. ii. p. 81. 



224 ANCIENT DOMINION^ OF MALNE. 

shore, and Arrowsic Island, were the only points permitted 
to be re-occupied within our domain. John Watts 
1714. of Boston, by marriage a grandson of Major Clark, 
in right of his wife a proprietor of the estate on 
Arrowsic, removed to this island ; and on the lower part, 
near a cove, raised a large brick house, and added flank- 
harts on which he mounted cannon. ^ The material was 
imported from Massachusetts ; the brick, it is said, from 
Medford. Land-holders and Government stimulated the 
return of the inhabitants and the increase of population, by 
affording facilities for return, and creating inducements 
thereto, in making provision for a perfect organization of 
society. 

BUILDING OF AUGUSTA. 

Georgetown was now resuscitated ; and the new town of 
Augusta, in the south-western corner of Phipsburg, at 
" Small Point," laid out. Here a great many fine buildings 
were erected, with several saw-mills. ^ George the I. had 
succeeded to the throne, and been proclaimed King of 
England ; and Samuel Shute and William Dummer were 
appointed to the Provincial Executive. In the published 
history of our State, the site of the ancient Augusta of 
Maine has been mislocated ; and the thrifty and vigorous 
namesake of our capital, about Small Point Harbor, has 
been entirely overlooked, and its reminiscences buried 
under its ruins, now overgrown and nearly lost amid the 
decay of a century and a half. The ancient town of Augusta 
" was a project of the Pejepscot proprietors." ^ Lots, sev- 
enty and one hundred feet wide, were surveyed and laid 
out, at Small Point Harbor. " A cart way was cut to the 
Sagadahock, opposite Arrowsic." " Dr. Noyes, one of the 

1 Sewall's Hist. Bath. Me. H. Coll. p. 201. 

sPenhallow, p. 82. 

3 Bath Tribune, Sept. 4th, 1856. John McKeen, Esq., of Brunswick. 



WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 225 

proprietors, seems to have been the principal director and 
patron of tlie settlement ;" ^ and a fishery, it is said, " was 
established by the ingenious Dr. Noyes, in which twenty 
vessels were employed at a time." ^ He built a gar- 
rison of stone at his own charge, the best in the 1716. 
East ; and which was maintained at the public 
expense. He also erected a convenient mansion house. 
Lots, for a church and a place of sepulture for the dead, 
were set apart for public use. The interest in the resusci- 
tation of the ancient settlements augmented daily ; and the 
tide of immigration flowed freely into the long abandoned 
wastes and wilds. 

SPECULATION OF PROPRIETARY ASSOCIATIONS. 

Edward Preble had now reared a home on the head of 
Arrowsic. For near a generation, the Sagadahoc, Pema- 
quid, and probably Sheepscot plantations had lain a waste, 
over whose early clearings wild hordes of savage men 
roamed in free and undisputed sovereignty, but which now 
" opened a wide field for speculation." ^ The sloop Pejep- 
scot regularly plied between Boston and the newly erected 
town at Small Point Harbor. " Vast quantities of pipe 
staves, boards, plank, and timber were exported to foreign 
ports as well as to Boston." Agriculture began to thrive, 
and a large stock of cattle to be raised. The fishery, ^ also, 
was revived, particularly in sturgeon, near Brunswick, which' 
had been carried on nearly a century before by Thomas 
Purchase, and " many ^ thousand kegg-s ivere cured for 
export every season.''^ Capt. John Penhallow and Dr. 
Noyes were residents of the town ; and to Mr, Mountfort 

1 Bath Tribune, Sept. 4th, 1856. John McKeen, Esq., of Brunswick. 

2 Penhallow, p. 82. 

3 Williamson's Hist. vol. ii. p. 91. 

4 J. McKeen, Esq. 

5 Penhallow, p. 82. 

Id 



22Q ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

was set off and assigned within that town two hundred and 
fifty acres of land " adjoining Dr. Noyes' Harbor ^ Farm." 

EEBUILDING OF PEMAQUID. 

An order was also passed to repair the fort and re-estab- 
lish the garrison at Pemaqiiid ; and the ancient dominions 
of Maine, embracing the whole eastern territory, were 
annexed to the county of which York was the capital, and 
the ancient Dukedom of the county of Cornwall, the early 
Devonshire of Massachusetts, all was now merged in the 
county of " Yorkshire." The curing and export of fish and 
lumber, the erection and running of saw-mills, gave employ- 
ment for labor and capital. 

EMIGRATION FROM THE WEST. 

The aspect of society was busy and thriftful ; and at this 
period emigrated from Salem to the margin of the Kenne- 
bec, the Halls, Jeremiah Springer, Nicholas Rideout, John 
Owen ^ and others ; and on each side of the road eight rods 
wide, opened from " Augusta Harbor," at Small Point, now 
so called, Edmund Mountfort was authorized by the propri- 
etors to lay out farms of " ninety-five acres each." ^ 

ANCIENT REMAINS OF PHIPSBURG. 

The Augusta of the ancients, embraced within the domain 
of the modern town of Phipsburg, adorned the margins of 
Casco Bay, near the mouth of New Meadows river. 

Within the same territory, in the extreme east, nestled 
the first settled town in New England, the ancient " St. 
'George" of Popham's colony, where was laid the first keel 
;and launched the first ship of New England ; and although 

1 See Augusta Town Records, MSS. 

2 MSS. letter to Noyes, from J. Clark. 
• 3 Records of Town Meeting, Augusta. 



WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 227 

under the accumulated disasters of climate and savage hos- 
tilities, it sunk where it stood, yet, in a century more, the 
thriftfiil Augusta arose in the west, to meet the same fate, 
and if possible, to shik into deeper oblivion. 

" cambel's cellar." 

There has been much doubt as to the site of Popham's 
town. The author, with an intelligent guide, explored tho 
Peninsula of Hunnewell's Point to search for any remains 
of entrenched and ancient works that might be there found. 

Hnbbard * had written that an ancient mariner, then liv- 
ing in those parts about Kennebec, heard an old Indian tell, 
the story, that when he was a youth, " there was a fort built 
about Sagadahoc^ the ruins of which were then shoimi the 
relator, supposed to be that called St. George, in honor of 
Capt. George Popham, the President of the Company sent 
over in 1607." The ruins of Popham's town were trace- 
able then, seventy years after the fort had been destroyed. 
Popham's people began " by entrenching and making a fort 
and building a store house.'' On the margins of Atkin& 
Bay, west side of the Peninsula of Hunnewell's Point, at 
the mouth of the river of Kennebec, in a swamp land sur- 
rounded by young cedars, a mile or more from and in the 
line of " Horseketch Point,'' so called from its having been 
a catching place for the horses of the settlers, gone wild in 
tlie neighboring marshes in ancient time, the author discov- 
ered and traced the outlines of an ancient earth-work, 
enclosing a rectangular excavation fifty by forty feet. The 
outUnes indicated that the place had been entrenched accord- 
ing to the forms of ancient Spanish strategic arts, being 
surrounded with a ditch, its entrance protected by a circular 
bastion, and having a covered way to the water, where was 
a living fountain at the shore-side. Tradition of the neigh- 

1 Hubbard's Indian Wars, p. 75. 



228 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

borliood gives no definite and settled explanation of this 
extraordinary and ancient ruin, some calling it the remains 
of the house of the " Old Indian-killer, Hunnewell^' and 
others calling it " CamheVs cellar^'' about either of whom 
nothing is known. 

A more intelligent aged resident ^ during early boyhood 
had the place shown to him by the aged people of that day as 
" the spot where the Indians had been persuaded to draw a 
cannon by its drag ropes, which was fired off by the Eng- 
lish, and killed many of them," and another, ^ eighty-six 
years of age, who had always been acquainted with the 
locality, said it was a strange place when he first saw it, 
having a covered way to the water, and surrounded with 
embankments, and that the old people of his childhood 
called it " Geo. Popham's Fort ; " and he had always heard 
of and known it as such. A sketch of the outline remains 
is given ; the encircling ditch being two hundred and thirty- 
five feet. 

EESTLESSNESS OF THE NATIVES. 

The rapid influx of white population to re-occupy 
1717. the early clearings in a region so long depopulated ; 
the revivified towns, phoenix-like, fresh and thriftful 
springing up on every side from the ashes of a former gen- 
eration ; the forts and improvements of civilized life — ex- 
cited the fears and roused the slumbering jealousies of the 
natives. 

Moreover a foreign, insidious, and designing foe to Prot- 
estantism and the English race, moved by rancorous national 
and religious antipathies, the priesthood of Rome, became 
an element of fearful activity in the hearts of the savage 
hordes of Maine. 

1 Dea. Hutchins of Phipsburg. 

2 Greenlaw. 



Y, 



228 INCIENT 90MIN1« 

■d givef 



^ Camber s c( 

intelligent aged resident ^ duriiu' 
! ! • "le j.uace sliown to him by the aged people oj 
' the spot where the Indiaji- had been persuade* ■ ■ 
cannon by its drag r ich was fired off by tl 

lish, and killed ivi ," and another, ^ ei; 

years of. n- * ^ ■ --lainted wi m 

locality, ■ h*" firpt eav,' it, 

}v ;th 

lod 
.rd 



The rapid iw. uiation to re-occiipy 

I Mi, tne early clearujg. ai .t regi ,11 '<o long depopulated; 
the rcTi"\ifiod towns, phcenix-like, fresh arl thrif'tful 
springing ery side from the ashes k on- 

ilio iorts and improvements of r .jx 

• ,..„. ., ;: ....,,..,.,1 fl. . e!,,v..lu.,-'. ,, 

nsidiori .- 



s oi' the savttgi? 



iioru 



1 Dea. ii 
8 Greenlaw. 




OUTLINES OF AN EARTHWORK ON EAST MARGINS OF ATKINS BAY, 
SUPPOSED LOCATION OF POPHAM'S FORT ST. GEORGE, MOUTH OF 
KENNEBEC, 1607. 

No. 1. Bastion on north side. 

No. 2. Outlines of Ditch. 

No. 3. Central excavations of the enclosed work. 

No. 4. Traces of covered way to the water. 

No. 5. Traces of the drain. 

A. Space between drain and covered way, sloping towards the shore. 

B. Shores of Atkins Bay. 



WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 229 

" French missionaries eagerly inflamed the prejudices of 
the savages, by telling them the English ^ had invaded. their 
rights." 

Added to these exciting circumstances, piracy again dis- 
turbed our waters. Favorite and secure retreats were 
found by these freebooters within the deep bays and creeks 
of our unfrequented shores. 

PIRATE SHIP WIDAH. 

Bellamy of the Widali, six of whose crew were taken and 
hung in Boston, " excited general and anxious ^ concern." 
Bellamy began his career with one confederate and two 
sloop-rigged vessels. From an unsuccessful search for the 
wrecked hulk of a Spanish ship, he turned to piracy. The 
galley-built ship Widah, Capt. Prince, homeward bound 
with a cargo of gold dust, elephants' teeth, and costly mer- 
chandise from India, was made the first prize. This ship 
was manned with one hundred and fifty men, and mounted 
with heavy guns, and at once put on the track of trade. 
On their cruise in the Gulf, a terrific storm overtook and 
almost submerged them. It was a Gulf tempest. The 
heavens lowered and flaslied, while the storm-tossed deep 
reflected the vivid lightnings through a darkness that might 
be felt, accompanied by the most awfully crashing thunder. 

BLASPHEMY OF BELLAMY. 

In presumptuous defiance of Him whose voice the thun- 
der was, Bellamy shouted — " that the gods were at their 
cups ;" and added that he was sorry he could not run out 
his guns to answer back their thunder, by giving a salute" ! 
The ship survived the tempest only to be tossed on the 
shoals and buried in the sands of Cape Cod. 

1 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 92. 

2 Annals of Salem, p. 364. 



230 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

BELLAMY AT MECHISSES. 

When off this point, a vessel laden with wines was cap- 
tured. The sea-rover then put away for the coasts of Maine, 
touclied near Pemaquid in search of a harbor of refuge, 
till reaching the " Me-chisses River," up which they ascend- 
ed some two and a half miles, where the Widah and her 
prize were moored by the shore. Huts were here con- 
structed, the captives from the prize ship were landed, and 
fortified works erected. By excavating the earth and roof- 
ing it over, a magazine was formed, to which the powder was 
removed by the prisoners, who were driven like slaves to 
their task. The ship's guns were landed and mounted. 
Here the " Widah" was careened, cleaned, and refitted for 
a cruise. After putting to sea again, she encountered a 
French ship of war of thirty-six guns ; and during a run- 
ning fight of two hours, the Widah, shattered and torn, with 
difficulty escaped. 

^IPWRECK AND DEATH OP BELLAMY. 

In the flight, Bellamy espied a Boston bound vessel, of 
which he made a prize ; and ordering her captain to lead 
the way witli a light by which the Widah should make her 
course, the sliip's company gave themselves up to their cups, 
and the Boston skipper purposely ran his vessel among the 
shoals and sands of Cape Cod, while the pirate ship, follow- 
ing recklessly in her track, was decoyed among the break- 
ers, and precipitated upon the sand reefs, where she struck 
and was lost. 

GEORGETOWN INCORPORATED. 

But while such perils of the sea were dissipating in the 
West, more terrible dangers were gatliering in the East. 
The ancient plantations were not yet entirely revived. At 
" Long Reach," the site of Bath, a Mr. Elkins ^ had erected 

1 Sewall's Bath. 



WAR OP THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 231 

^ house, and Joseph Heath was his neighbor above ; and 
the territory now embracing Bath, Woolwich, and a section 
of Phipsburg was incorporated as Georgetown. The only 
dweUing houses on Arrowsic were those of the Watts ham- 
let and that of Mr. Preble on the upper end of the island 
opposite " Long Reach." 

The dangers of savage hostilities increased. Government 
endeavored to allay the excitement by winning the confi- 
dence of the Indians, quieting their fears, and undermining 
their prejudices. 

A conference was held. The aid of religious instruction 
and the power of the book of God was invoked. 

CONFERENCE AT GEORGETOWN. 

His Majesty's ship, the Squirrel, bearing his 
Excellency the Governor of Massachusetts and his 1717. 
suite, sailed from Boston and anchored off the Aug. 9. 
lower end of Arrowsic, in the lower waters of Sag- 
adahoc, within the cove at the head of which Mr. Watts had 
erected his new brick house. Eight sagamores and chief- 
tains, headed by Moxus and Bomaseen, with many of their 
tribes, had gathered on a neighboring island, called " Pud- 
dlestone," ( PadishalFs ? ) A vast tent was spread near the 
mansion of Mr. Watts, and the British flag hoisted, beneath 
which the conference was to be held. 

A fleet of canoes, headed by one bearing the flag of Great 
Britain, at the appointed hour crossed over to the place of 
conference. Capt. John Gyles and Samuel Jordan had 
been designated as interpreters, and were publicly sworn by 
his Honor, Samuel Sewall, Esq., one of the Supreme Judges 
of the Province. Saluting the chiefs, and announcing the 
object of the interview, " holding up a Bible, the Governor 
said that the great and only rule of life, faith, and worship 
is in this book, which is the word of God. This contams 
our holy religion, and we would gladly have you of the 



232 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

same religion with us ; therefore, we have agreed to be at 
the charge of a Protestant Missionary among you, who will 
reside here or hereabouts." 

RESPONSE OP WI-WUR-NA. 

Wi-wur-na, a chieftain of the Kennebecks, then rose and 
replied that " he was to speak in the name of his people : — 
but would not be ready to answer his Excellency before 
to-morrow." An ox was given to the savages for dinner, and 
the conference adjourned. On the morrow the conference 
was resumed. Wi-wur-na appeared and said, — "We have 
considered what his Excellency said yesterday, and we speak 
first for love and unity ^'' which his people admired and 
believed to be pleasing to God ; and hoped his Excellency 
would endeavor to realize it. The Governor assured it, " if 
they were obedient to King George.''^ Wiwurna answered, 
" We will be very obedient to the King, if we like his offers 
and if we are not molested in the improvement of our 
lands " .' " This place was formerly settled and is now set- 
tling at our request. We will embrace the English in our 
bosoms that come to settle on our lands." " They must not 
call it their land," retorted the Governor. Wiwurna re- 
sumed, — " We pray leave to proceed in our answer. We 
desire no further settlements be made. We shall not be 
able to hold them all in our bosom and to shelter them if 
bad weather and mischief be threatened. All people love 
their ministers ; and it would be strange if we should not 
love them that come from God. As to Bibles, we desire to 
be excused. God has given W5 ^eacAmo- aZreat?//." The sav- 
ages then adroitly turned the conversation by adding, " we 
were sick yesterday to see the man-of-war ashore — so faint 
we could not speak out with strength. We are now glad 
the ship is well — shall be very glad when we have con- 
cluded, that your Excellency may have good vnnds and 
weather — get safe down the river and honie.^' 



WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 233 
LETTER FROM RALLE. 

In the course of the discussion, undisguised opposition 
"was made to the construction of fortified works. " We 
should be pleased with King George," said Wiwurna, " if 
there never ivas a fort in the eastern parts^ The natives 
yielded a reluctant consent " that the English might occupy 
alt they had before ; " and then in an abrupt and hasty 
manner, without the accustomed formalities of leave-taking, 
the Indians rose and withdrew, leaving the English flag 
behind them. h\ the evening a letter was brought from 
Sebastian Italic, their priest, in which the power of France 
was menaced, and the position of Wiwurna sustained. 

DISGUST OF THE GOVERNOR, 

The movements of the natives were now explained, but 
the letter was rejected with disdain by the Governor, who 
retired to the man-of-war — ordered the foretopsail loosed, 
and was about to put to sea, when a canoe with two natives 
put off from the island, hastened to the ship, apologized for 
the rudeness of yesterday, and sought a renewal of the 
negotiations. It was granted ; Wiwurna discarded, and the 
sachem of the Penobscots now led the conference, and spoke 
for the savages. Wiwurna of the Kennebecks did not 
appear at all. 

Satisfactory explanations having been made, a treaty of 
peace and amity was concluded, presents exchanged, the 
articles signed, and the conference dissolved, the ratification 
of the treaty having been sealed in a " dance of peace," in 
presence of the Governor and suite. 

BEGINNING OF AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY ISSUES. 

The eastern forests of spar timber and oak were 
objects of interest with Government, and not less so 1718. 
to commerce. Since the earliest discovery and set- 
tlements on the Sheepscot and Sagadahoc waters — even 



234 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

from the days of Witlieredge, the spar-dealer of Pemaquid 
— the lumber-trade had been attractive. The protection of 
the interests of the Crown in these forests had now become 
a cause of irritation between the representatives of the 
Royal authorities and the people. The hardy pioneer, the 
rough backwoodsman, often proved more than a match for 
the King's surveyor. 

Bridger, commissioned as the Royal surveyor of the King's 
forests, had been sent out with Lord Bellamont, twenty 
years before this date, accompanied with Royal naval com- 
missioners, to investigate the capacity of the country for the 
production of naval stores. The idea of extensive and prof- 
itable culture of hemp and flax for cordage and duck, and 
the running of tar and turpentine, had widely obtained. 

Bridger had these interests in charge ; and the property 
in the wliitc pine trees of Maine became at once an occasion 
of deep and lasting differences between the struggles of 
power and privilege in Royal prerogative, and popular rights. 

The reservation of all pines for the use of the Crown, of 
given dimensions, under severe penal prohibitions, was fre- 
quently set at naught. Tlie pine trees were often felled 
and cut up into twenty-foot logs for boards, despite the offi- 
cers of the crown and tlie guardian presence of the capital 
R. These acts brought the Crown officers and the lumber- 
men into frequent collision ; and as will hereafter appear, 
initiated a controversy which finally overcame the prestige 
of Royal prerogative. 

Desolation had possessed the whole region. At 
1719. this time, between Georgetown and Annapolis in the 
remote East, it is affirmed tliere was not a liouse left, 
except a fish house on Damariscove Island : ^ a statement 
we can hardly credit as entirely correct. But the inflowing 
population soon spread itself over the waste places. At 

1 Williamson's Hist. vol. ii. p. 97. 



WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 235 

Damariscotta Falls, Michael Thomas, tenant of Christopher 
Tappan, re-occupied the planting grounds of Walter Phil- 
ips, and there was no other resident there save the Indians, 
who, drawn to this spot by recollections of the past, or the 
traditions of their race, loved to linger where the ashes of 
their fathers reposed. 

Richard Pierce, William Hilton, and John Brown, Jr., 
returned to the ancient plantations of Broad Cove in Bris- 
tol, Muscongus, and New Harbor, ^ Many natives at this 
period visited at Thomas's house, which stood on the point 
a little below the lower falls of the Damariscotta, among 
whom was Ne-wor-met and a very aged squaw, ^ who said 
she formerly lived at this place, and that her husband was 
the son of him who sold the land. 

Hilton had greatly enlarged and improved liis settlement ; 
and in the then remote eastern frontier settlement on 
George's River, near the residence of tlie Revolutionary 
hero, Gen. Knox, parties interested in the Muscongus patent 
erected block houses of great strength, and built a covered 
way to the river. The space between these structures of 
massive timber was enclosed in palisadoes. A double saw 
mill was put up, and about thirty dwelling houses. A sloop 
was there owned, with other coasting vessels, and many 
laboring men were employed. Such was the aspect and 
condition of the nucleus of the thriving and important 
toAvn of Thomaston. 

During the process of laying out the Thomaston hamlet, 
the Indians daily resorted to the scene of labor in large 
numbers, and by various stratagems, with menaces of vio- 
lence, sought to deter and discourage the workmen from 
clearing the lands and the rearing of dwelling houses. In 
consequence of these demonstrations, cannon were mounted, 

1 Eaton's Annals, p. 32. 

2 Lincoln Commis. Reports. 



236 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

and a detachment of twenty men under Col. Thomas West- 
brook was assigned to the defense of the place. 

At the elbow formed by an abrupt curve of the St. 
George's River to the westward, at the head of ship naviga- 
tion, was the site of the newly out-laid town and its fortifi- 
cations, now in command of Westbrook, a Scarboro' mast- 
shipper. ^ Near Swan Island, on the west bank of the Ken- 
nebec River, was made another fortified clearing called Fort 
Richmond, which became the nucleus of the thriving village 
of the same name, which to this day is noted for the enter- 
prise of its inhabitants as a ship-building community. 

SCOTCH-IRISH IMMIGRATION. 

The Politico-Religious agitation consequent upon 
1720. the accession of William and Mary to the throne of 
Great Britain had excited popular and civil commo- 
tion in that country, which injected a new element into the 
re-peopling tide which now flowed in from England to fill 
up the Ancient Dominions of Maine. 

An exodus of Scotch-Irisli from the north of Ireland 
reached our shores. Robert Temple was the patron of the 
new movement. Himself from tlie north of Ireland, Col. 
Temple, - late an officer in the Irish army, three years before 
this date, chartered a ship lying at Plymouth, commanded 
by James Luzmore of Topsham, England ; and witli his 
domestic retinue, had landed in Boston. He came seeking 
a new home. Immediately on his debarkation, he explored 
the Connecticut valley, and then, at tlie instance of Dr. 
Noyes, Col. Winthrop, and Minot, he sailed for the Kenne- 
bec. Pleased with the result of liis observations here, he 
took an interest in the Lawson purchase ; and near " Wliis- 

i Hist. Scarboro', p. 227. 

2 Hutchinson. Williamson's Hist. vol. ii. p. 98. Controversy Plymouth 
and Pejepscot Proprietors, p. 21. 



WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 237 

geag," lie laid out an estate. It was the site of the ancient 
"Whisby" plantation^ of King Philip's times. Here he 
erected a new town, and called it Cork. He now chartered 
three ships, and laded them with the children of the Kirk 
of Scotland, and steering for New England, planted several 
hundred colonists of the Scotch-Irish on the Kennebec ; 
and the Cork of Maine flourished in rivalry with that of the 
Emerald Isle across the Atlantic. Robert Temple, in the 
colonization of Scotch-Irish emigrants at " Merry Meeting," 
introduced a most eventful and auspicious era in the final 
re-peopling of this section of Maine. Temple's movements 
on the Keiinebcc in the West laid the foundations or initia- 
ted the beginnings of the far more extensive and successful 
policy of Gov. Dunbar, ten years subsequently, in the East. 
The plantation of Temple at Whisgeag, undoubtedly, in 
accordance with the custom and policy of the times, in 
those days of surprise and peril, had its garrison — the cas- 
tle of the town — erected and occupied by the Patron of the 
colony himself ; and the location of the colonial Cork plan- 
tation, by the old residents of " Long Reach" is recognized 
to this day by the familiar name of " Ireland ; " and the 
original settlers were never entirely dispersed, as prominent 
names in the city of Bath now well attest. 

EFFECTS OF THE INCREASE OF POPULATION. 

The restlessness of the savages at the influx of population 
and the advance of fortified places and new settlements 
within their domain on the Kennebec and beyond Pemaquid 
— the ancient limits of eastern colonization — began to make 
demonstrations of violence. 

LORON's REMONSTRANCE. 

The savages claimed the land as their own, and viewed 
the white settlers as intruders. " "We desire," said Loron, 

1 Nari'ative of James Gjles. 



238 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

" that no houses or settlements be made to the eastward of 
Pemaquid, or above Arrowsic ; that the houses at St. George 
should be removed to Pemaquid ; and tliat at Richmond, to 
Arrowsic ; and that both be converted into trading houses." 
" We don't remember of any settlements at St. George," 
continued he. " We remember a pretty while ; and as long 
as we remember, the place where the garrison stands was 
filled witli great long grown trees." ^ 

But tlie reasoning of Loron was of no avail. The hand 
of enterprise clutched at more, as the foot of civilization 
and the tread of power advanced steadily on. 

Tlie Romish Church fostered the discontent by the influ- 
ence and suggestions of French priests. Their emissaries 
fanned the smothered fires of resentment in the savage 
heart. 

At Norridgewock the hatchet was dug up, and the Indians 
sung the song of war. The tide of re-settlement was stayed. 
Alarm and despondency succeeded. Cattle were killed and 
property devastated. 

SATISFACTION DEMANDED. 

Col. Walton, with Captains Moody, Harmon, Penhallow, 
and Wainwright, were dispatched to the chiefs to demand 
reparation for the mischief done. It was promised ; and in 
the latter part of July ninety canoes gathered in the lower 
waters of the Sagadahoc, at Puddlcstone's ( Padishall's ? ) 
island opposite Arrowsic, and demanded an interview with 
Penhallow, commandant at Arrowsic. 

One hundred and fifty Indians, headed by Delachass^, 
Ralld, Castine, and others, landed on Arrowsic, bearing a 
missive to the Governor of Massachusetts, notifying him 
" that three weeks were allowed the settlers to remove and 

1 M. Hist. Coll. vol. iii. 



WAR OP THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 239 

quit their lands, or suffer the loss of their cattle, the destruc- 
tion of their dwellini^s, and the sacrifice of their lives.'' 

Castiue was seized, sent to Boston, and at the bar of the 
Supreme Court interrogated and acquitted. It was resolved 
to seize also Sebastian Rall^, and have him too, in Boston 
" a prisoner or a corpse." 

NORRIDGEWOCK EXPEDITION. 

Col. Westbrook was detached with his command to attack 
Norridgewock and secure the person of Father Ralle. He 
reached the settlement undiscovered, but ere his command 
could surround his house, Ralle made good his escape, leav- 
ing behind his books and papers, which fell into the hands 
of the invaders. These gave ample proof, it is said, of the 
treacherous and dangerous influence of the man, whose 
power over the savage mind was little short of superhuman. 

DEVASTATION OF MERRY MEETING. 

In June twenty canoes bearing sixty braves shot 
across the waters of Merry Meeting Bay, and lit up 1722. 
its margins with the burning homes of nine families. 
A portion of the captured were released, but Hamilton, 
Love, Handson, Trescot, and Edgar were taken prisoners to 
Canada. 

DAMARISCOTTA LAID WASTE. 

Another war-party appeared on Walpole heights. The 
home of the Hustons was destroyed. Tlie mother ^ and 
daughter were slain, and the father dragged into captivity. 
On the Newcastle side, near the seat of the Hon. E. Farley, 
Mrs. Gray and six children were cut off. At Muscongus 
and Broad Cove in Bristol, Wm. Hilton was killed, while 



1 Penhallow's Indian Wars, p. 84. Lincoln Co. Commis. Reports, Hus- 
ton's Depo. p. 151. 



240 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

John Pearce took a vessel and thirty men with his aged 
father and family, and thus escaped by water. 

Dr. Kenelem Winslow was seized at his garrison, on the 
Newcastle margin of Damariscotta, taken to Load's Island 
near Round Pond, and there cruelly put to deatli. 

The ancient Walter Philips plantation was now a second 
time reduced to a state of solitude and desolation. 

ST. George's assailed. 

The Indians now appeared before the hamlet 
June 15. on St. George's River, two hundred strong. The 
saw mills were fired. The newly-framed houses 
and the proprietors' sloop were all burned together. One 
man was killed and six made prisoners. The assault on the 
garrison, however, was repelled. Three months after, a yet 
larger force, with an attendant priest and Frenchmen, re- 
newed the attack. Five men were surprised and slain. 
Twelve days and nights the place was stormed, during which 
a surrender was urged and rejected. " Good quarter and 
transportation to Boston" were offered the besieged. The 
overtures could not induce a surrender. Maddened with 
taunts of defiance, an attempt to undermine the fort was 
made. Heavy rains had softened the earthy walls of the 
excavation, which caved in, and the savages, disheartened, 
retired, leaving twenty of their number behind, the victims 
of their discomfiture. 

tilton's adventures at damariscove. 

Lieut. Tilton had anchored his fishing boat under Damar- 
iscove, where he and his brother were taking fish. Led by 
a Kennebec sagamore, Capt. Samuel, the friend of Boma- 
seen, a savage of great bravery and duplicity, five Indians 
boarded Tilton, seized, pinioned, and beat both him and his 
brother most barbarously. Under this savage castigation, 
one of the brothers freeing himself, released the other, and 



WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 241 

together they fell on the savage band with the fury of des- 
peration, mortally wounded two, and tossed overboard 
another. The rest were glad to escape. Capt. Harmon 
with his company, from the lower waters of the Kennebec, 
made an expedition up the river. It was a night excursion. 
Descrying the light of camp fires on shore, Harmon turned 
his prow toward it. When landed he found eleven canoes 
moored to the bank. 

Wearied with their carousal, and satiated with the bloody 
orgies of recent successes, before him lay the dark forms of 
the savages about their camp fires, fast locked in deep sleep. 
Over the bodies of the sleepers he stumbled as he dispatched 
them together to that land whose dread silence knows no 
waking. A considerable party lay near, which, roused by 
the startling death-cry of their comrades, rushed to arms, 
but firing random shots, fled. 

A SCENE OF HORROR. 

Fifteen guns were taken by the victors ; and on the stump 
of a tree, near the place of the savage bivouac, lay a white 
man's hand, severed from his trunk, his body, barbarously 
mutilated — the tongue torn out — the privates cut off — and 
without the nose ! These were the remains of Moses Eatom 
of Salisbury. 

PUBLIC EXASPERATION. 

All were panic-stricken at these outrages, and the clamor 
for war rang fiercely from hamlet to hamlet. War was 
declared. A thousand men were enrolled, and three hund- 
red were detached to break up the enemy's strong-holds on 
the Penobscot ; and a body of four hundred were sent to^ 
range perpetually by land and water between Penobscot and' 
Kennebec. Bounties were offered by Government for In- 
dian scalps and captives. Cols. Westbrook and Walton, 
were chief in command. 

16 



242 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

BATTLE OF AEROWSIC. 

Peiihallow's command occupied tlio lower end 
Sept. 10. of Arrowsic, probably the Watts settlement at 
Butler's Cove. At the dawn of morning light, a 
small escort was sent out to aid and protect the farmers in 
securing their crops. This escort came by surprise on a 
body of four or five hundred Indians, which had stealthily 
approached and lay in the woods, prowling about the village 
to surprise and destroy it. 

Finding the discovery to be inevitable, the savages fired 
on the scout as it retreated to the fort. One fell dead, and 
three were wounded ; but the report of their fire-arms 
alarmed the entire settlement. The inhabitants, not yet 
scattered in their fields, hastily gathered their subsistence, 
and fled into garrison. Tlie Indians raised the usual whoop 
of war, and pursued. As they approached within range of 
vision, their appearance, gliding among the tall surrounding 
forest pines, painted, and terrible in the trappings of savage 
array, Avas truly terrific. 

GAERISON STORMED. 

The whole savage host at once assailed the garrison at 
•every point. Through one of the port-holes, Samuel Brook- 
ing was shot dead. The assault was unsuccessful. No 
impression Qould be made on the garrison, which effectually 
shielded the defenders from the storm of shot and balls 
poured upon it. Discouraged, the Indians wreaked their 
vengeance on the cattle of the island, and set fire to the 
village of twenty-six houses. 

©uring the night ensuing, Col. Walton and Capt. Harmon 
in whale-boats re-enforced the garrison with thirty men. 
Col. Robert Temple also joined his force to that of Penhal- 
low. Temple, from his service as captain in the Irish army, 
had acquired an experience which showed him to be on this 



WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 243 

occasion brave, prompt, and efficient. The report of the 
morning fight, or the ahirm of Penhallow's guns below, had 
reached his ears, in the garrison plantation of Cork above, 
and drew him to the aid of Penhallow. Temple and Pen- 
hallow, making up a force of seventy men, led out a night 
attack. They assailed the savage hordes at their camp 
fires. But greatly out-numbered and out-flanked, and 
likely to be cut off from retreat by environing hosts of sav- 
ages. Temple and Penhallow retired from the conflict ; and 
the Indians took to their canoes in the darkness of the night, 
apparently satisfied with what they had already received. 

As they paddled away, Captain Stratton of the Govern- 
ment sloop fell into their hands, and was mortally wounded. 
Insulting the garrison at Richmond in their passage up the 
Kennebec, the Indians returned to their head-quarters at 
Norridgewock ; and Georgetown, after six years resuscitated 
thrift, was once more desolated, and the region filled with 
dismay and despondency. 

WESTBROOK'S EXPEDITION. 

Col. Westbrook, appointed commander-in-chief, 
now detached a body of two hundred and thirty men, 1723. 
who, embarking at Kennebec, ranged the coast east- 
ward, and penetrated the upper Penobscot by water and land 
till he reached the principal Indian settlement, a village of 
twenty-three houses, enclosed with a stockade, and orna- 
mented with a chapel, all of which being abandoned, he 
committed to the flames. Col. Westbrook returned to the 
fort at St. George's with the loss of his chaplain, Rev. Benj. 
Gibson, and three of his command. 

Capt. Harmon led another detachment up the Kennebec 
against Norridgewock, numbering one hundred and twenty 
men. Encountering the fierce snows and frosts of Febru- 
ary in their march through the wilderness of the Great-bend 
of the Androscoggin, an abandonment of the expedition 
was forced. 



244 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

Many discouragements overwhelmed this devoted section, 
consequent on the ill-success of the military operations. 
"No settlement, no vessel at anchor, no dwelling-house" 
escaped assault or destruction. 

ST, GEORGE ATTACKED. 

Fort George again was invested. Two prisoners were 
■secured, and the place subjected to a siege of thirty days, 
without any successful result. Kennedy commanded, and 
repelled the invading force till relieved by Col. Westbrook's 
return. 

BATTLE OF GEORGE's RIVER. 

Josiah Winslow, a native of Plymouth, a graduate 

1724. of Harvard College, yet a youth, and connected with 

May. the most respectable families of Massachusetts, had 

been assigned to the command of the fort on George's 

River, at the site of Thomaston. 

One pleasant morning, early in May, invited by the fresh- 
ness and beauty of Spring-time, with a select company in 
two whale-boats, Capt. Winslow embarked for an excursion 
to the islands, a favorite haunt with the savages for taking 
fowls, probably at the mouth of the river, called " the green 
islands." The party concealed themselves and their boats 
during the night and the succeeding day of their arrival, in 
expectation of an approach of the enemy. Sliortly before 
the setting of the sun, disappointed in meeting the savages, 
as anticipated, the party re-embarked for a return to the 
fort. 

It would seem that the enemy^ liad discovered the boat 
party, and had placed considerable numbers in ambush, on 
each shore of the narrow river. As the boats rowed leis- 
urely up the river, homeward bound, unsuspicious of evil, 
a flock of water-fowl drew the fire of one of the company. 
Contrary to the counsel of Winslow, who was in advance, 



WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 245 

Sergeant Harvey, in command of the rear boat, giving no 
heed to the warnings of his superior, " to keep close to him," 
turned in pursuit of the wounded bird, saying, — " Go easy 
on your oars, and I will presently be up with you." In 
pursuit of the poor bird, struggling for life in the despera- 
tion of its flight, the party were drawn toward the western 
bank of the river, when from copse-wood and thicket fire 
was opened on the boat by a body of savages there in con- 
cealment. Three of the crew fell dead, and the savages, 
hasting to their canoes, attempted to surround the party 
and cut off all retreat. 

Harvey returned the fire ; but to escape overpowering 
numbers, the boat made with all expedition for the shore on 
the opposite side. Harvey had fallen. Winslow, alarmed 
and warned by the frequent discharge of musketry that his 
forebodings had been realized, although considerably in 
advance and out of peril, turned back to succor his men. 
Before he had reached a position to relieve the devoted band 
in his rear boat, now contending for their lives, he was him- 
self suddenly surrounded by a flotilla of thirty canoes with 
ninety braves, who rushed in upon him from each bank of 
the river, heralded by terrific yells of defiance, and attempt- 
ed to seize the boat and capture the men. The savages had 
approached very near when a sudden and murderous fire 
from the boats sent its death-flashes on all sides to greet 
them. Nothing daunted, the savage host pressed onward 
till from the gunwales of the whale-boat they were so 
fiercely repulsed and beaten off with clubbed muskets that 
they retired and dropped astern, maintaining the fight at a 
distance. The first boat in the fight, but the rear boat of 
the detachment, had reached the shore, wlien, encountering 
another party of savages as tlie shattered fragment of the 
boat's company landed, and selling their lives as dearly as 
possible, every soul was slain except three Christian Indians, 
who alone escaped to tell the tale ! 



246 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

CAPT. WINSLOW'S DEATH. 

Thus the recklessness of the gallant Harvey cost the lives 
of himself and comrades. Winslow, perceiving the case to 
be desperate, fought with a resolution death itself could not 
damp. In admiration of his courage and bravery, the sav- 
age foe offered him quarter, but rejecting all overtures, he 
fought on till night drew her somber shadows over tlie scene 
of carnage. In the dusk of evening, most of his company 
being slain, Winslow sought the shore, wliere the survivors 
landed, only to be shot down in detail. Capt. AVinslow fell 
with his thigh broken to the ground ; on seeing tlie hero 
thus disabled, the Indians rushed on him, when rising from 
the ground and recovering himself on the other knee, the 
dying Winslow brought the foremost of his savage pursuers 
to the dust before they could slay him. Thus every white 
man fell in this bloody encounter, a gallant band whose 
heroism deserved a better fate. The brave Winslow was 
thus cut off, heroically faithful to his trust at tlie head of 
his intrepid men, against fearful odds disputing every inch 
of ground, and holding at bay till dark the ferocious savage 
horde. He fell greatly beloved, tmiversally lamented, 
accomplished and brave, in the first buddings of his opening 
manhood ; and it has never been known whether the bodies 
of that gallant band were given sepulture, or left to be 
devoured of beasts of prey. It is, however, more than 
probable that their bones bleached in the sun where their 
blood was shed to mingle in the dust of mother earth, or 
tinge the briny tide of the St. George, till tliey were covered 
with autumnal leaves or buried beneath the oozy bed of the 
river, there to wait the gathering of the resurrection morn- 
ing. What alternations of hope and fear, what deeds of 
personal valor, what incidents of startling interest, did the 
eleventh of May weave into the closing scene of tlie history 
of fifty human beings who began that morning with bright 
hopes and joyous anticipations ! The records of Eternity 



WAR OP THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 247 

can only reveal in full and melancholy detail, the blood- 
stained colorings of the tragic end of the youthful Winslow 
and liis brave comrades, under the hoary oaks and pines of 
the St. George River, — where naught now but, 

" The winds that through the vernal showers, 

Or autumn's leafless branches moan, 
Pass sigliing o'er their place of rest, 

To all surviving friends unknown." 

SAVAGE FIRE-SHIPS. 

Fully determined to destroy the fort, a party of savages 
passed up the river, and seizing and packing small vessels 
with combustible matter, they ignited the mass, converting 
them into tire-ships, and urged the burning pile forward so 
near as to endanger the block-houses. Untiring vigilance 
and exertion prevented the catastrophe, defeated the sav- 
age purposes, and thus discouraged from further attempts, 
all withdrew. 

ARROWSIC AGAIN INVESTED. 

The garrison at Butler's Cove on Arrowsic, still com- 
manded by Penhallow, was again assailed, but with no better 
success. The discomfited savages retired, securing three 
of the settlers, wlio were taken while driving their cows to 
pasture. Deserting the Island, they left the tokens oi their 
vengeance behind them, in the carcasses of the butchered 
herds, every where slain in their way. Thus foiled in their 
movements on the land, the Indians turned toward the sea. 
Gathering a fleet of fifty canoes, they steered for Monhegan. 
The fishermen who had put in for wood and water along the 
coast, were captured. Eight vessels and forty men, twenty 
of whom were slain, fell into their hands. 

Fourteen vessels subsequently were taken, and the savages 
became at once a scourge and terror to all who went down 
to the sea to do business on the great waters. 



248 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

To repel this new mode of warfare, so unusual in Indian 
tactics, Jackson and Lakeman fitted out an expedition to 
meet the enemy at sea. No considerable result followed. 
Jackson was wounded ; and the Indians driven into Penob- 
scot Bay, sought shelter under the Fort of the Baron de 
Castine, on the heights of Bagaduce. But the sea was no 
field for the skill or policy of the Indians, in war, who soon 
tired of so toilsome and perilous a scene of warlike adven- 
ture. 

BATTLE OF NORRIDGEWOCK. 

It had been ascertained beyond reasonable doubt that 
Romish and priestly influence was the chief exciting cause 
of savage hostilities, and that Father Rall^, the spiritual 
teacher of the Norridgewocks, had become a conspicuous and 
active agent in fomenting the strife. 

Norridgewock was therefore marked for destruction ; and 
Ralld, the missionary, had become an object of public detest- 
ation to the English, though esteemed for his zeal and learn- 
ing by the distinguished men of his own nation, and vener- 
ated and loved by his charge, whose rights and interests he 
seemed to have at heart. 

To effect the destruction of Norridgewock and the capture 
of Rall(i, and to chastise the savages on the Kennebec, 
Captains Harmon, Moulton, Brown, and Bene were sent 
with two hundred men and seventeen whale-boats, up the 
Kennebec. 

DEATH OF BOMASEEN. 

Bomaseen, the Sachem of the Kannabas, whose hands still 
reeked with the warm blood of a victim to his scalping knife, 
near to Brunswick, was met by this force. Taking to the 
water to elude his pursuers, he was shot, and sank beneath 
the tide, where it was empurpled with his blood. His daugh- 
ter, too, shared her father's fate under the aim of the sharp- 



■WAR OP THE ENGLISH EEVOLUTION CONTINUED. 249 

shooting white man, while the mother and wife was made a 
captive. 

Encouraged by her story to prosecute their design, the 
detachment now debarked, and marched* for Norridgewock. 

Approaching the place of their destination, the force divid- 
ed within two miles of the village, the one part to range the 
fields of growing corn, and the other to invest the town. 

DEATH OF FATHER RALLE. 

The several squadrons had reached within pistol shot 
before it was known at the village. A sanap, yielding to the 
necessities of nature, had come alone out of his wigwam, 
and made the first discovery of the presence of the invading 
force, whose whoop, as he sprang in for liis gun, gave the 
alarm. But the soldiery had environed the village, and 
were yet concealed from view. 

Surprise and consternation seized the residents of this for- 
est-embosomed town of half-christianized men. In the panic 
many seized their weapons of war, whose random firing did 
no execution. Others fled only to fall on the bayonets of 
ambushed white men, and many plunged into the waters of 
the Kennebec only to perish there ; and some took to their 
birchen boats to be precipitated over the falls below. The 
rout was terrible and complete. The body of Ralld, covered 
with the corpses of his fallen flock, was found near the cross 
in the center of the town, pierced with bullets, his scalp 
torn'' off, his skull broken in, his mouth and eyes filled with 
mud, and his limbs fractured. 

The village, the church, all were consigried to the flames. 
It was a stroke as terrible as it was unexpected ; and it broke 
the hearts of the Kannabas tribe of Indians. The pride of 
their power and their spirit as a people were subdued for- 
ever. 

1 Penhallow, p. 105. 

9 French account, Charlevoix, p. 120. 



250 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

The body of ^ Rall^ was buried in the ashes of his cliurcli 
by his converts on their return to their war-bkisted homes. 

EFFECTS OF LOVEWELL'S WAR. 

The heroic and desperate encounter between Love- 
1725. well, Paugus, and Wahwa, at the mouth of Battle 
May 8. Brook, near Pegwacket Tillage, on the margin of 
Lovewell's Pond, in Fryeburg, completed the deso- 
lation of the tribe of the Sekokis, who were left in much 
the same condition as the Kannabas, after the death of Ralle 
and the sacking of Norridgewock. 

The natives became anxious for peace. To palliate recent 
violent acts on their part, " the encroachments of the irhiies 
upon their lands at Cape-newag-en, ivliere two of their friends 
had been beaten to death,''^ were the causes alleged. Doubt- 
less, allusion was had to the affair of Capt. Tilton, off Dam- 
ariscove. 

But these successes only increased the exasperation of the 
whites ; and it became so deep, that not unfrequently acts 
of gross outrage and wrong were perpetrated. 

A small band of Indians repaired to St. George's Tinder a 
flag of truce. A scouting party fell on them, and a sharp 
engagement followed, in which one white man was killed 
and another was wounded. 

1 " Father Ralle was regarded by the Enjjlish as a most infamous villain, 

and his scalp would have been esteemed worth a hundred scalps of the 

Indians. 

The French esteem him as a hero and a saint. Forty years he spent in 

missionary toil and deprivation among the savages wlio loved and idolized 
him. 

He, was a man of superior natural powers, master of the learned lan- 
guages — pure classical and elegant in his Latin. He taught many of both 
sexes to write in their own tongue among his flock ; and in zeal, learning, 
and ability, might have ranked with Cotton, Mitchel, and others." — Hutch. 
Hist. Mass. vol. ii. p. 239. 



"WAR OP THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 251 
SAMUEL TRASK'S ADVENTURES. 

Samuel Trask, when a boy, had been stolen from Salem 
by the Indians, and an appropriation for the pnrchase of his 
redemption was made by vote of the town. As no traces of 
him could be discovered, the money was applied to the pur- 
chase of a bell. 

But Trask was a captive among the eastern Indians, and 
resided near tlie abode of the Baron de Castine on the Pe- 
nobscot. While a captive, a season of great scarcity occur- 
red, which drove the Indians to the cranberry beds for sub- 
sistence. While engaged in gathering cranberries, a flock 
of wild geese alighted, to feed near by. The birds were 
eagerly sought for food, and Trask ^ proving more success- 
ful in the capture of the birds than the natives, it com- 
mended him to his master's favor as a skillful huntsman. 
This skill and his seamanship brought him into the notice 
of Castine, who purchased him of his captors, and employed 
him on board his sloop. Lying at anchor off the southeast 
point of Sedgewick, an English sloop ran in and fired on 
Castine, who, deserting his vessel, fled with Trask and a 
native lad to the shore. 

But the English commander ran up a white flag inviting 
and assuring Castine a safe return. Duped by the false pre- 
tences, Castine and the lad returned to their vessel. But 
Trask was seized by the Englishman, who declared the ves- 
sel a prize and Castine a prisoner, but permitted as a special 
favor his return to his people. Castine landed, leaving his 
property to the English freebooter. On being pursued by 
an English sailor, who seized the native boy, Castine shot 
him dead, rescued the lad and escaped. 

The buccanier sloop set sail, with Trask, and departed. 
From this craft he was transferred to the companionship of 
Captain Kid, with whom he had been accustomed to visit the 

1 R. Sewall's Narrative. 



252 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

Sheepscot and cut ^ spars from the liead-land on the north 
shore of Oven's Mouth, and who often careened his ships 
within the deep creeks and coves of this river. On the cap- 
ture of Kid, and the dispersion of his crew, Trask retired 
to his haunts on the Sheepscot, and made his clearing within 
eye-shot of an alleged deposit of Kid's treasure on the east 
margin of Folley Island, within the precincts of the early 
" Free-town," now incorporated as Edgecomb. 

His experience among the Indians gave him celebrity as 
one skilled in the curative art ; and hence he was recognized 
among the early settlers of Free-town, as Dr. Trask. But 
he had acquired a relish for strong drink ; and an early set- 
tler of Free-town, Cunningham by name, whose tippling-shed 
Trask frequented, wormed out of the old man, while in his 
cups, the secret of the " pot of money ; " and it is asserted 
on good authority, as coming from an eye-witness, that under 
cover of night, lighted by the moon-beams, the " seller of 
grog" visited Folley Island in a canoe, and forestalled 
Trask, by digging up and securing the buried gold. 

DAMARISCOVE ATTACKED. 

While peace was sought by most, occasional mischief was 
perpetrated by roving bands of savages. 

As Stephen HunwelP and Alex. Soaper lay in the haven 
of Damariscove, a war-party paddled to sea, and there seized 
their vessels and burned them, and made prisoners of the 
ship's company. These unfortunate fishermen were taken 
into the Kennebec ; and at Winnegance were put to death 
in cold-blooded barbarities, offered probably in sacrifice to 
the manes of slaughtered clansmen, as faggots to the fires 
which lighted the dance of victory, or set as marks to the 
flying tomahawk and life-drinking scalping knife. 

1 Hon. S. Parsons. 

2 Penhallow's Indian Wars. 



war of the english revolution continued. 253 
dummer's peace. 

These atrocities were preludes to the celebrated pacific 
overtures of Lieut. Gov. Dummer, which had so long been 
maturing, and were completed in " Dummer's Treaty," rat- 
ified at Falmouth. This celebrated treaty gave hope of 
enduring repose to this distracted and desolate sec- 
tion, in whose bonds the leading chiefs froin Penob- 1727. 
scot to Canada joined, and which was confirmed Aug. 3. 
by a solemn dance of peace, in which all the most 
sacred tokens of savage faith were plighted. 

effects of the war. 

If the savages had been great sufferers, the damage they 
had done to the reviving settlements of the " Ancient 
Dominions " was enormous. Georgetown had been made 
deeply to drink of affliction. Openings in the forest wilds 
that had begun to bud with promise of civilization, and 
become attractive as centers of business, were blasted for- 
ever. 

The town of Augusta at Small Point Harbor with its 
fortified works of stone, projected, fostered, and built up by 
Dr. Noyes, had been utterly depopulated ; the houses with 
the fort were all destroyed and burnt ; ^ and although an 
attempt was subsequently made to revive and rebuild the 
place by the Rideouts, Hales, Springers, Owens, and others 
from Falmouth, it failed. 

At the military posts, according to treaty, stores witli 
goods supplied by Government in charge of its own agent, 
termed a " Truck-master," were opened for trade, where, in 
exchange for peltries and furs, the Indians could obtain the 
'commodities of civilized life. 

truck-houses. 
These public establishments greatly facilitated the inter- 
course of Government with the savages, and fostered the 

^ John McKeen, Esq. 



254 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

measures of peaceful repose to the country. The action of 
Government in these premises greatly interfered with the 
operations of speculators, who had battened on ill-gotten 
gains as " Indian traders ; " and who resorted to every 
device to elude responsibility and prosecute illicit traffic. 

dagget's castle. 

A precipitous steep on the western banks of the Sheepscot 
still bears the name of " Dagget's Castle," marking the 
point where an " Indian trader " or sea-rover was accus- 
tomed to moor his sloop, and beat up " truck " with the 
savages. " Dagget's Castle " is nearly a perpendicular wall 
of granitic gneiss, whose face rises more than a hundred 
feet above the surface of the waters, about whose base the 
channel of the river winds and curls in eddying tides. 
Moored in one of these deep tide pools, to this lofty steep, 
the savage could only approach on one side in his fragile 
birchen canoe ; and out of it with unsteady foot-hold on the 
capricious bottom, swayed to and fro by the sweeping cur- 
rents, carry on trade. Thus protected in his sloop by the 
towering clifif-side, " Dagget " called it his castle ; and at 
the top of his sloop's mast is said to ^ have painted his hand 
as a sign on the face of the rock. From the summit of this 
lofty steep, it is also said that spars and mast timber have 
been cut ; and in the fall of the mighty trees, as they broke 
from the stump on the brow of these giddy heights, they 
were accustomed to make a clean leap into the watery 
depths below, where, till a late day, submerged and fastened 
in the oozy bottom by their tops, the butts have appeared 
swaying in the tide. 

DUCK-HUNTING. 

Other traditional incidents, explanatory of familiar local 
names and points of interest, are given on the same author- 

i Hon. S. Parsons. 



WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 255 

ity. An ancient planter on " Jewonke Neck," who had 
been often a captive, and well understood the native dialect, 
both of the Penobscot and Kennebec tribes, said the aborig- 
inal name of the Sheepscot signified •' many duck waters," 
which taken with the fact given by Penhallow ^ of the 
immense multitude of this fowl there hunted and slain with 
billets of wood and canoe paddles according to an annual 
custom, renders the appellation exceedingly appropriate to 
the ancient waters of the Sheepscot as a haunt for the wild 
duck, where were favorite feeding grounds for their young. 

HOCK-OMOCK. 

" Hockomock Head," which thrusts its bold steeps and 
rears its rocky cliffs amid the waters of the bay, whose east- 
ern and western outlets are through lower and upper " hurl- 
gate," by the inland passage between the Sheepscot and 
Kennebec, took its name from the following circumstance, 
as given on the authority of the ancient men who lived and 
died near the spot about a century and a half ago. 

At the head of the bay formed by " Phips' Point " on the 
east and Hockomock Neck on the west, in the southeastern 
corner of the present town of Woolwich, was early built a 
settlement or hamlet of the first planters and probably 
the artisans in Phips' ship-yard. Among the first indica- 
tions of hostility, the visit of a war party to this hamlet, 
which they subsequently plundered and burned, alarmed 
the residents, who, seeking the strong-holds of this precip- 
itous promontory among its cliffs and steeps, in flying over 
the neck, were pursued by the savages. A Scotchman, less 
fleet of foot than his fellows from age or corpulence, his 
head protected witli a wig of antique size and fasliion, 
brought up the lagging rear, and soon fell within grasp of 
the pursuing red-man, whose outstretched hand laid hold 

1 Penhallow, p. 84. 



256 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

on the flowing wig for a head of hair which promised a 
magnificent tropliy to the scalping knife. 

But, to the surprise and consternation of the savage, the 
"joermuo-" clave to his hold, while the apparently headless 
body still ran on, leaping from steep to steep, utterly indif- 
ferent to what had been left behind. The astonished sav- 
age, believing he had been running a race with the devil, 
suddenly stopped, and dropping the wig in superstitious 
horror, turned to fly in the opposite direction, crying to his 
comrades, ^ " Hockomock ! Hockomock ! " the Devil ! the 
Devil ! 

LIBERALITY OF GOVERNMENT. 

The exchanges at the truck-houses were conducted on the 
most liberal principles ; and although they yielded no reve- 
nue to the public treasury, they tended greatly to assure 
the public tranquility. 

THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE. 

On a clear, serene, and cool Sabbath evening, near 
1727. midnight, the last of October, a deep, hollow sound, 
like the roaring of a chimney on fire, the rattling 
of ten thousand coaches over rocky pavements swelling 
into distant thunder echoes, roused the dwellers in New 
England from their sleep with startling intimations of dan- 
ger. 

The terrific reverberations rising in the northwest and 
rolling toward the southeast, accompanied with a tremor of 
the earth's surface, was preceded by a running flash of blu- 
ish flame at each shock. The sea roared as the earth trem- 
bled ; and opening in some parts of New Hampshire, " cast 
up a very fine, bluish sand, ^ followed by out-gushing wa- 
ters." 

1 Hon. Stephen Parsons, tradition of Greenleaf of Oak Island. 

2 White's Hist. New England, p. 49. 



WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 257 

Beasts ran howling to the fields as if in great distress. 
The earth heaved. The houses rocked and creaked. Chim- 
neys were riven. Doors, windows, and walls were broken ; 
the glass ware clattered, and, in some instances, with a 
crash, fell to the floors. All nature was in commotion. 
Men, with surprise and terror, trembling with the earth on 
land, and on the sea tossed with their ships, which plunged 
along as if grating over shoals of ballast-stone, began to 
wonder at the power of Him " who will yet once more shake 
both the land and the sea," till their place shall no more be 
found. 

Such were the effects of the second memorable earth- 
quake in New England, within the recollections of Euro- 
pean history. 

Peace still reigned within the borders of the ancient 
dominions of Maine, now merged into a county of which 
York was the capital, and Yorkshire the civil name. 

But population flowed slowly in to re-occupy the wasted 
plantations. The lands between the Kennebec and St. 
George's Rivers were most attractive ; and more than a cen- 
tury had passed since the first occupancy and improvement 
thereof, during which they had been planted and re-planted 
for three generations,- and as often devastated ; and now 
only about one hundred and fifty families occupied the 
entire section. 

17 



CHAPTER YI. 



ANTE-REYOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 

We have reached an epoch marked with the closing 
scenes of the sanguinary conflicts with the aboriginal 1729. 
inhabitants, and the opening incidents of the final 
re-settlement of the country on a peaceful and permanent 
basis, in which the existing social development received its 
cast ; and in which, also, those causes first began to move 
which have shaped our existing social, civil, and religious 
organizations. • 

George II. sat on the throne of England, under whose 
administration was sent out a most efficient agent in the 
re-settlement of the Ancient Dominions of Maine, and who 
laid and shaped the foundations of our existing social and 
religious structure, and who introduced a new and vigorous 
element in the final re-population of this part of Maine. 

We have alluded to the colonial influx of the Scotch-Irish 
to this region under Robert Temple. David Dunbar, a 
military officer — (it is said a Colonel in the Irish army,) 
— armed with a commission from the Crown of England, 
as " Surveyor General of the King's Woods and Governor 
of Sagadahoc," now appeared. 

On reaching the shores of Sagadahoc, Governor Dunbar 
repaired to the fortress at Pemaquid. He rebuilt its walls, 
restored the breaches and decay of Fort Wm. Henry. 



260 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

Thus renovated, lie named this ancient strong-hold, Fort 
Frederick. Here, on the site of the ancient Jamestown, he 
took up his abode, planting the Presbyterian church, whose 
services were administered according to the religious faith 
and forms of the " Kirk of Scotland," by Rev. Robert Ruth- 
erford. 

DUNBAE EMIGRATION. 

The Provincial Governor, Dunbar, by Royal order was 
required " to settle ^ as well as to superintend and govern 
Sagadahoc." This order was made known by proclamation 
from the Throne. His first movements were directed to the 
locating and laying out of cities and towns ; and on the 
Sheepscot and Damariscotta waters, at the most eligible 
sites, he projected three ; viz., Townsend, Harrington, and 
Walpole. Townsend embraced the aboriginal Cape Ne-wa- 
gen, about the head water margins of the harbor, where had 
been the scene of the explorations of George Weymouth's 
expedition. Harrington and "Walpole were within the Pem- 
aquid and Damariscotta sections of Bristol, whose earliest 
planters, from the city of Bristol, England — many of them 
the shipwrecked voyagers of the Angel Gabriel — had 
given the name of the city of their father-land to the spot 
misfortune had compelled them to clear, plant, and colonize. 

Col. Dunbar with zeal and energy applied his extraordi- 
nary powers to fill up the country with emigrants from 
Europe. To afford adequate defense, he procured a detach- 
ment of Royal troops, and re-occupied Fort Frederick. 

. In pursuance of the great end of his mission, he employed 
agents, and stimulated their activity by land grants ; and to 
each settler a homestead lot of ten ^ to twelve acres was 
given, with proportionate and adequate lots of an hundred 
acres back. 

1 Depositions, Commiss. Reports, L. Co. 



ANTE-REVOLUTION AKY PERIOD. 261 

McCobb and Rogers, as agents of Dunbar, were 
by him granted a section of the newly laid-out Towns- 1730. 
end, on condition that they should fill iip the town- 
ship by introducing emigrants from Europe. Dunbar also 
assigned portions of Walpole and Harrington to Montgom- 
ery and Campbell on the same conditions. 

The settlers were procured ; and the descendants of these 
emigrants to this day form most of the inhabitants of Booth- 
bay. 1 Ten and twelve acre lots were assigned for home- 
steads in the Dunbar towns, and the inhabitants held and 
supposed they were to hold their lands under the Dunbar 
title, 1 under which impression the men of Bristol fought 
the battles of the Revolution in defense of their lands, till 
by land or sea " one-quarter part of the able-bodied men of 
the town fell " ! 

The countrymen of these parties, agents and principal, 
were of the Scotch-Irish stock, as their names sufficiently 
indicate. The sympathies of this race were therefore 
enlisted, and their interest stimulated by attractive visions 
of a home of their own ; and multitudes of that vigorous 
people were allured to the rock-bound shores of Sagadahoc, 
which were thus planted with a people radically Presbyte- 
rian in all their proclivities, and uncompromising enemies 
of the Church of Rome in every age, since the days of 
Wickliff and John Knox. 

The sympathies of Dunbar were strongly and naturally 
allied to the Crown, and adverse to the jurisdiction of Mas- 
sachusetts. Representing Royal authority, his own interests 
and ambition coincided Avith the Royal prerogatives. Act- 
ing with the vigor of precise military habits, accustomed as 
he had been to command, Dunbar made good success indeed 
in executing his plans, but acquired a reputation for arbi- 



1 McCobb's Deposition, Lincoln Co. Rep. p. 157. Boyd's Deposition, 
Lincoln Co. Rep. p. 158. 



262 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

trary conduct which aroused deep and wide-spread preju- 
dices. 

Dunbar soon removed his residence from Pemaquid to 
the site of his newly-projected city of Walpole, and on Bel- 
videra Point, at the head of the lower l)ay, he had marked 
out the plan of the city, and began it by building himself a 
house. Armed with a royal commission, in the midst of a 
sympathizing exotic population, whose duty it was for him to 
govern, as well as people the land as the King's Surveyor, 
forest and lands were subject to his control ; and the lands 
were parceled out to the emigrants introduced by himself 
and his agents, as part of the policy of his administration. 
In the execution of this policy, his position necessarily 
brought him in collision with the interests of the original 
proprietors and non-resident claimants, as well as with tres- 
passers on the public domain, — a class of rough, hardy men, 
who would not shrink from a trial of rights, in " the appli- 
cation of swamp law." Bridger's experience was Dunbar's. 
As a matter of course, great clamor was raised against the 
Royal Governor, to his prejudice. 

OPPOSITION OF THE PROPRIETOKS. 

In this clamor, Waldo was conspicuous and persistent. 
The interest and sympathies of the proprietors were with 
Massachusetts, where they chiefly had a residence ; and by 
their influence the local government was soon enlisted 
against Dunbar. The combination, at length, effected his 
removal to the Province of New Hampshire, leaving the 
people planted by him and his agents entirely exposed to 
the rapacity of the proprietary claimants, whose oppressive 
acts finally compelled Government to interfere to prevent 
civil war. Dunbar's policy resulted in the augmentation of 
a thrifty agricultural population by creating a personal 
interest in the land they might occupy. The proprietors 
were interested in this increase of population, hut only so 



ANTE-EEVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 263 

far as it made a market for the sale of their lands. But 
Dunbar could no longer protect ; and the Drown, the Brown, 
the Tappau, and the Plymouth companies over-rode all local 
rights and interests of the occupants of the soil, the barrier 
being now broken down between them and the proprietors. 

On his departure. Gov. Dunbar delivered his homestead 
at Belvidera into the custody of his religious teacher, Rev. 
Mr. Rutlierford ; and the city contemplated at Walpole 
became an abortion. At the falls of the Damariscotta and 
the site of the ancient New Dartmouth on the Sheepscot, as 
at that of the embryo city at Belvidera Point in Walpole, a 
considerable population had begun to concentrate. 

The Jones, the Hustons, the Hiscocks, the Kennedys, had 
become fixed in their residence at these points. 

The garrison system still prevailed ; and there can be 
no doubt that the advent of Col. Dunbar to the gubernato- 
rial seat in Sagadahoc constitutes an important era in the 
history of this region ; and the movements of this officer, 
though viewed with suspicion and denounced as oppressive 
by the Massachusetts proprietary claimants, were eminently 
successful in re-peopling our wastes, and are still felt in the 
character of the population by him introduced. A more 
intelligent, enterprising, fearless, thrifty, peaceful, and vig- 
orous race cannot be found on earth than the descendents 
of the Dunbar emigration, who still hold and occupy the 
Dunbar towns. 

The entire section received a revivifying impulse from 
Gov. Dunbar's well-planned, liberal, and wise policy ; and 
the chief detractors of Dunbar's merited fame and his most 
successful opponents were the proprietors of antiquated 
claims to larg-e bodies of landed estate, icho in the end 
became the real oppressors of the people, and were the favor- 
ites of Massachusetts, because they were men of wealth and 
influence. 



264 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

INFLUENCE OP THE SCOTCH-IEISH ELEMENT. 

The Scotch-Irish immigration, introduced under 
1730. Dunbar's policy, now began to set freely in upon our 
shores, urged hither by the commotions consequent 
upon the Revolution in England, which the Popish procliv- 
ities of James, the last of the Stuart dynasty, seem to have 
excited. This influx of a new race from tlie Emerald Isle 
was borne on one of those vast surges following the throes 
of the religious element in human nature, which often in 
the history of our race has tossed and shaken empires and 
the world to its center ! • 

On this surge came Protestantism, also driven by ghostly 
power, seeking an asylum on our shores, where the blood- 
red tracks were traced indeed in the frontier homes along 
our river margins and through our forest wilds, but where 
the hand of persecution could not reach. 

This tide of life from the hills and valleys of Ulster, 
forced westward by the treacherous breath of the bigoted 
Tyrconnel, the representative of the interest of James Stu- 
art in Ireland, rolled over the desolate clearings and wasted 
hamlets of the " Ancient Dominions," re-peopling our bor- 
ders with a pious and zealous civilization. 

Fresh and fervid from the siege of Londonderry and the 
battle-fields of Enniskillen, came the children of the Kirk, 
nursed on the bosom of Presbyterianism, full of faith, hope, 
and zeal, panting for freedom to worship God. Such were 
the people who planted the ancient clearings of Bristol, 
Cape Newagen, and the Arrowsic towns, with seed from the 
best stock of Europe. Such were the sources whence these 
wastes were filled in the final re-settlement of this region. 
Bristol, Boothbay, Georgetown, and Phipsburg were re- 
planted. The fireside tale, the thrilling story of a winter 
evening's gathering around the hearth-stone of venerable 
age, perpetuating the remembrance of the deeds and daring. 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONAET PERIOD. 265 

the hopes and faith of a chivalrous ancestry, were graphic 
details of the events of the siege of Londonderry, on which 
the aged and pious Joseph Beath ^ of Townsend was wont 
to dwell, while the tears ran down his furrowed cheeks as 
he rehearsed the wrongs and deliverances of that memora- 
ble act in the glory and shame of England. 

The Temples, Beaths, Murrays, all figured in the scenes 
of that siege, of which the living center was " Black Wil- 
liam ^^^ the familiar designation of the husband of Queen 
Mary, the daughter of the fugitive James, now called to 
the English Throne by the voice of Protestantism. And 
the events, scenes, and issues of that day may well be 
remembered, for they marked the ages to come, while yet 
in embryo, as well as the age in which they lay. 

Over the scenes of the siege of Londonderry Joseph 
Beath wept as he rehearsed the thrilling story in the ears 
of the rising generations of Townsend, the perils, fortitude, 
faith, and zeal of their ancestry, who had sought a home on 
the margins of the magnificent harbor of Townsend, and ini 
the wilds of Maine. The simple faith of this emigrant race> 
is well illustrated in the following anecdote of Andrew, 
Reed, the uncle of the Rev. John Murray, and a principal: 
settler of Townsend. During the war of the last savage- 
conflict, the residents at the harbor withdrew to the- west-- 
ward for safety. But Mr. Reed would not leave^ and in, 
defiance of all persuasion, persisted in remaining in his sim- 
ple shelter of a " log cabin." Contrary to expectation, the 
returnino; fuQ;itives found him alive and unharmed in the 
Spring ; and to their excited inquiries he calmly replied 
that he had felt neither solitude nor alarm: — for why 
should he ? " Had I not my Bible with me 2^^ cried the- 
old man. ^ 

1 Mrs. Weymouth of Boothbay Harbor. 

2 Mrs. Weymouth. 



266 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

The neighboring groves of beech and oak and the ready 
hand-sled — and the coaster's sloop — were the great resour- 
ces of commerce at this date ; and this pious and aged fron- 
tier's man, during the long and solitary winter, piled the 
cord-wood on the landing, and in the book of God wore out 
its dreary solitudes in drawing out its Clu^istian consolations. 

Vaughn's enterprise. 

William Vaughn, extensively engaged in the fish- 
1730. eries at Monhegan Island, at the head waters of the 
Damariscotta, now erected large milling establish- 
ments for grain and the manufacture of lumber. Here a 
large and thrifty village started into existence, and grew in 
wealth and importance so long as lumbering resources 
remained. 

He had now removed his residence and built a mansion 
house near his mills, which not long after was consumed, 
and the Dunbar grants and land titles, it is supposed, were 
destroyed therewith ; and the village which grew up, to 
this day, as the capital of the town of Nobleboro', is known 
as " Damariscotta Mills," the vast, unappropriated water- 
powers of the site of which will ere long lay the founda- 
tions of a city which will become the Lowell of Maine. 

wiscasset. 

Seventy years prior to these events, within the precincts 
of the aboriginal Ped-coke-gowake, ^ on an eminence half a 
mile north of the point in Wiscasset Bay, on the Sheepscot, 
fifty rods from the water-side, George Davis, his brother, and 
.two others had made their plantation in the heart of a for- 
est, beneath the sheltering branches of mighty beech trees 
and tall pines. This was the original European plantation, 
■ on the west margins of Wiscasset Bay, and the first begin- 
.nings of the shire town of Lincoln County. 

•1 Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. vii. p. 163. 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 267 

At the close of Philip's war, this plantation was broken 
up ; and the families left their clearings crowning the 
heights which shade the beautiful landscape environing the 
bay, to desolation and solitude. The portrait of one of the 
matrons of tliis pioneer liamlet of the Sheepscot, the widow 
of one of the Davises, who died in Newton at the age of 
one hundred and sixteen years, adorns the rooms of tlie 
Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston. 

By transfer and inheritance, the lands of George Davis 
of Wiscasset passed into the title of several wealthy men of 
Boston, who were associated as the " Boston Company." 

Robert Hooper was the earliest re-settling resident at this 
conspicuous point. He entered half a mile south of the 
early and original Davis plantation ; and reared his log 
house by the side of a large rock, some three rods from the 
water. The site of his home was romantic and conspicuous. 
The point is broken into a considerable eminence, rolling 
back from the shore margins, bold in outline on its eastern 
front ; and in its original vesture of oak and pines, present- 
ing the aspect of a noble headland, rising from the depths 
of the bay, at the confluence of three tides, which feature 
" Wichcasset," an aboriginal name, is said to describe. It 
must have been a conspicuous landmark in the early navi- 
gation of these waters, on the upper margins and land-falls 
of which the ancient " Sheepscot Farms " smiled in fertility 
and freshness. 

On the dispersion of the earliest occupants, the Davis 
families, for half a century the clearings lay waste, without 
an inhabitant ; and the original hamlet sank where it rose, 
amidst its own ruin and decay. 

Its revival at the point under Hooper gave to the locality, 
a pre-eminence it has ever since maintained as a center of 
trade, in its earlier history, in the exportation of spar tim- 
ber to Europe. Hooper subsequently removed from the 



268 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

point to the peninsula under " Cushman's Mountain," as a 

place of greater security from savage alarms. 

Foye and Lambert followed Hooper, and Robert 

1731. Hodge re-occupied the Patishall grant on the east- 
ern and opposite shore. Two miles below the point, 

1734. the Boyntons, Taylors, Youngs, and Chapmans took 
up their homes. 

THE GARRISON HOUSE. 

On the crown of the headland at the point, was erected 
the garrison of the hamlet, the defense from savage attack, 
and the asylum of the planters. Emigrants from England 
swelled the re-peopling current at the point in Wiscasset 
Bay. Capt. Jonathan Williamson was the leading spirit of 
the English emigration, and eminent among the first settlers 
at the point, who established his home on the peninsula 
south of Hooper's, known as " Birch Point." 

Probably some of the Dunbar emigration from Scotland 
and Ireland found their way to this settlement, which con- 
sisted of members of the English Episcopal Church, some 
Presbyterians, and largely of Massachusetts Puritans. The 
iCongregational element prevailed ; and the community 
finally settled down in their religious organization, under 
the polity of that denomination, and Thomas Moore was 
called to be their religious teacher. 

Dunbar's influence was not controling at the point 
Those in sympathy with his movements were unquestionably 
absorbed in the paramount interest of the Massachusetts* 
proprietors ; and Wiscasset Point, from that day to this, has 
been the only locality where the Congregationalism peculiar 
to Massachusetts has retained its features. 

A. considerable population had returned to Arrowsic, and 
occupied the southern end of the island, so that for two 
miles in extent, every ten acres of land had a dwelling 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 269 

house, * whose inhabitants were made up chiefly of Irish 
emigrants. 

Col. Dunbar having been removed to New Hampshire, 
the re-occupancy and population of the country went slowly 
on. Nevertheless, new openings were made at various 
points, pushing into the wilderness as the old clearings were 
filled up ; and the natural resources of the country began 
to be opened. ^ Robert Mclntyre discovered the properties 
of the lime-rock formation of St. George's River, and erect- 
ed a kiln for the manufacture of quick-lime. 

WALDO IMMIGRATION. 

"Waldo now adopted Dunbar's policy, and a con- 
siderable population was introduced by Alexander 1740. 
McLean, Mclntyre, Howard, and Spear, in the east, 
from Enrope. These agents visited the Kennebec and Pem- 
aquid, as well as the St. George's River, and were so " struck 
with the advantages of that river as at once to give its sec- 
tion the preference." 

WALDOBORO' FOUNDED. 

Companies were enrolled, and all the outlines of a 
more perfect military organization were traced. Wal- 1740. 
do had become a resident of Maine. From Bruns- 
wick and Saxony forty families were drawn into Maine by 
his efforts. They left Massachusetts Bay and sailed east ; 
and reaching " Broad Bay," planted about its head-waters 
the thrifty town of " Waldoboro'." 

At " Long Reacli," in the west, Jonathan Philbrook, from 
Greenland, New Hampshire, cleared and occupied the 
island on which are now located the Custom House, 1741. 
Banks, and principal business center of the city of Bath. 

1 MSS. Papers of Hon. Mark L. Hill. 

2 Eaton's Annals, p. 48 — 55. , 



2Y0 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

MRS. PORTERFIELD's NARRATIVE. 

The stimulus imparted to emigration bj Dunbar 
1741. and his coadjutors in filling up the depopulated plan- 
tations of the ancient Ducal Province, continued to 
draw from their homes in Ireland sliip-loads of Scotch-Irish 
Presbyterians. In the course of these voyages, accidents 
of peculiar and distressing interest have tinged the history 
of this region with long-remembered sorrows. 

The story of a Mrs. Porterfield of Georgetown has left a 
record of one of the most distressing casualties of the kind, 
which we will give in detail, ^ as it illustrates the character 
of some of the early settlers of the region, and shows how 
far selfishness can go to extinguish humanity. 

A large ship's company set sail from London- 
Aug. 28. derry with propitious gales and hopeful prospects, 
under Commander Rowen. A majority of the 
emigrants were men of piety, and zeal of that bold, marked, 
and decided stamp which has ever invested Presbyterianism 
with a character of vigor and force. 

" The ship's company daily assembled on the quarter deck 
for prayers, conducted by some of the passengers." A vio- 
lent storm, ten weeks out, drove the ship from her course, 
and carried her masts by the board. Provisions were ex- 
hausted. Land was made on the eastern coasts : 
Oct. 28. — an island or neck inhabited only by savages. 
On these desolate shores one hundred human 
beings were landed, without provisions or shelter. Some 
twenty or thirty persons of this unfortunate compa)iy went 
out in search of inhabitants, but never more returned. 
The captain, officers, and crew, in the ship's boats, in a few 
days made land about New Harbor, near the Kennebec. In 
the meantime, the ship, driven upon a small island, was 
broken up, and with two small vessels obtained at the har- 



1 White's New England, p. 203. 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 271 

bor, the ship's company returned to secure the plunder. 
Collecting what plunder they could, the captain and his 
company returned to New Harbor, taking with them such 
of the passengers as they could sell for servants, the others 
being left to their fate under circumstances the most dis- 
tressing and hopeless. Muscles from the beach, dulce from 
the rocks, and sea-kelp were seethed in a pot for food, and 
served out to the remnant of these shipwrecked voyagers. 
For two months, life was thus sustained. Daily, Death 
multiplied his victims around, and thinned out their num- 
bers — the males sinking sooner than the females, as though 
less capable of endurance. The savages at length discov- 
ered this shipwrecked company, and plundered them of all 
they had left. Snow came ; and their blankets, suspended 
from neighboring tree-tops to shelter their bodies from the 
storm, were taken away by the ruthless free-booters. 

Their boiling vessel having been carried off, Mrs. Porter- 
field, searching among the dead, found a sauce-pan, in which 
they continued to cook their meager and unsavory morsel. 
In her mess were nine persons, and the scene about her was 
shocking in the extreme. There lay an infant child and its 
boy brother, whose parents had died on ship-board, locked 
in each other's embrace in death ; and heaps of dead had 
fallen one on the other, from cold and starvation ; and as 
the crowning horror, near by sat a youth, as he had died, 
infatuated with the promise of his faithless commander to 
return and take liim off, still gazing sea-ward with a book 
in hand, and fixed in his strange attitude by the icy stroke 
of death ! 

At length the whole company lay about fallen in groups 
of ghastly corpses over the desolate and unknown place, 
excepting Mrs. Porterfield, her mother, and sister. In a 
fierce snow storm their fire was lost ; and with nothing to 
cover themselves but the heavens, no food but frozen mus- 
cles, their extremity had become one of desperation. The 



272 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

next day the mother died ; and there was none to bnry her. 
Shoeless, houseless, and famishing, exposed to the full, 
bleak, fierce, cutting winds of December, the sisters gave 
themselves up to die, when they were discovered by three 
men who had come to search for plunder among the dead, 
and who were much surprised there to meet the living, 
where it was expected to find only the dead ! Listening 
to the story of these forlorn and wo-begone females, they 
proposed to take them as servants if they preferred it to 
starvation. The overture was joyfully accepted, and these 
wreckers from New Harbor, taking away a bundle of cloth- 
ing containing her Bible, received Mrs. Porterfield and her 
sister on board their vessels, and plundering the ship and 
stripping the dead, sailed away. To repay themselves for 
receiving these distressed and shipwrecked survivors, the 
sisters were sold into service, and the proceeds pocketed by 
the heartless ruffians. What a commentary on human 
nature ! 

At length discovered by a fellow-countryman, — " a kind 
and pitiful Irishman" — the hapless women were befriended 
by him. His assurance of protection against the extortion- 
ate and oppressive demands of their heartless salvors, was 
made good. He proved to be a man who feared God. By 
Christian counsel and kindness he soothed their sorrows and 
calmed their fears, taking them to his own house, and hos- 
pital^ly entertaining them tliere ; and when recovered from 
their depression and disease, he procured for each of them 

good places, the one in Boothbay and the other in 
1741. Georgetown ; and at this time there was a general 

manifest attention to religion, " the professors of 
religion being greatly animated by the good work which was 
going on." Destitute of the preached word, without a min- 
ister, " the people met together every Sabbath, and fre- 
quently on other days," to worship God in public, "by 
prayer, singing psalms, and reading instructive books." 



ANTE-EEVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 273 

Georgetown became the home of the subject of the above 
narrative, where she finally settled, reared a large family, 
died, and was buried. 

DISTURBING EFFECTS ON THE SAVAGES. 

The encroachments of European immigration upon 
the forests of the East, where the touch of civilized 1742. 
life caused hamlets in clustering villages to gather 
about the head-waters and along the river-banks and har- 
bors, under the shadow of forts where the rush of pent-up 
waters and the clatter of mills sent their echoes through 
the dense old forest trees, which fell and faded from exist- 
ence, perpetually annoyed the fretted red-man. He com- 
plained of Waldo and his people, '^ that Indian lands and 
rights had been encroached upon ; and that they could no 
longer endure the sight of such flagrant wrongs.'^ 

But these complaints were stifled by the hand of power, 
and savage jealousies glowed in unextinguished fervor.. 
Ten years' repose from war had not cooled savage resent-- 
ment, nor allayed his fears. Unfortunate occurrences, 
heightened these resentments. An Indian woman had been, 
arraigned at the capital of Yorkshire for murder ; and the- 
frequent report of fire-arms through the forests, aaid the • 
" bones and hoofs of an ox purloined from the whiie- man's 
herd, found in an adjacent swamp among the ashes of a sav-. 
age camp-fire," all foreboded approaching hostilities. 

Shirley's administration. 
The fort at St. George was rebuilt, reinfoxeed, and 
placed in command of Capt. Jabez Bradbury. Shir- 1743, 
ley had replaced Gov. Belcher in authority. " The 
blood-red clouds of war still lowered. 

THE SPANISH WAR — A TRIANGULAR STRUGGLE. 

The able-bodied men were enrolled as minute men. An, 
army of four hundred was organized, and each man reqiiired, 

18 



274 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE,, 

to have in readiness a good gun, sufficient ammunition, a 
good hatchet, an extra pair of shoes or moccasins, and a 
pair of snow-shoes. ^ Old wounds of honor, old sores of 
prejudice, were opened afresh. France, England, and Spain 

were all involved together. The savages were stir- 
1744. red up to waste the exposed frontiers, and war way 

proclaimed against them in Boston. 
From Brunswick to St. George, a tier of block-houses 
had been reared along the outskirts of the forests, to each 
of which was appended a body of troops for scouting par- 
ties, which ranged from post to post, forming a cordon of 
sentinels around the frontiers. 

BLOCK-HOUSES. 

Block-houses were reared at Brunswick, Topsham, Rich- 
mond, Wiscasset, with Vaughn's block-house on Damaris- 
cotta, at Broad Bay, and St. George's, all of massive timber. 
Vaughn of Damariscotta became a most important actor in 
the scenes now opening. 

FALL OF LOUISBURG. 

Col. Vaughn was a man of intrepid character, keen per- 
ception, and great enterprise. He had become familiar 
with the situation of Louisburg, the French capital of the 
East, l)elieved to be the nest where savage war parties were 
hatched to swarm over the adjacent English frontiers. 

Information gathered from his fishermen had suggested 
to Vaughn the idea of the capture of this strong-hold. He 
conceived that a svirprisal was feasible. The Governor list- 
ened to his suggestions. Vaughn's project was adopted, 
and Louisburg fell under a combined movement of tlie col- 
onial naval and land forces, led by Tyng, Pepperell, Wal- 
do, and Moulton. Vaughn accompanied the expedition, 
commissioned as Colonel, Pepperell being chief in com- 

1 Williamson's Hist. vol. Li. p. 214. 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 275 

maud, whose success in the capitulation of the cap- 1745. 
ital of French Acadia gave great renown to the arms Jan. 
of New England, as well as relief to the perils of the 
eastern frontier. 

A FRONTIER HOME. 

Each period of settlement has been marked by the style of 
buildings used for human habitations, and has had its natural 
development in characteristic features. In the vestiges of 
these primitive homes along our river-margins, we may 
trace the age of the settlement. The rivers were the high- 
ways ; and at the outset, not even a line of spotted trees 
indicated a land-track. Roads and streets are the product 
of time, wealth, civilization, and populousness. On the 
banks and margins of water-courses, in the first openings of 
a new country, will be found the vestiges of the pioneer- 
homes. A simple structure of logs was reared from the 
butts of the ancient trees, fallen by the pioneer axe on the 
spot where they were cut down for a clearing. The walls of 
a rectangular structure thus built were covered with bark or 
thatch. The enclosed earth was excavated for a cellar, 
which was unwallcd. The excavation is then planked over 
witli riven logs of pine ; and a trap-door in the center of 
the flooring let you into the bowels of the primitive struc- 
ture, consisting of a single room below and a garret above, 
to which a ladder led the ascent. 

In one corner of the log-walled room, a large fire-place 
opened its cavernous depths. The back and one side was 
built of stone, while a wooden post set the opposite jamb, 
supporting a horizontal beam for a mantelpiece. Throiigh 
the bark thatch or slab roof, or outside and vip the back wall 
the building, was reared a cob-work of cleft wood, whose 
interstices were filled with mortar-clay, which in place of 
brick and mortar, was called " cat and clay." On the 
hearth, usually a flat stone, an ample store of wood was 



276 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

heaped, which was felled at the door, while the capacious 
fire-place, glowing with light and heat from the blazing 
hearth-pile, not only illumined the whole interior, but 
afforded a snug corner for the indiscriminate stowage of a 
bevy of little ones. On the margins of the Sheepscot, now 
can be distinctly traced in the old farm sites, each develop- 
ment of the architectural stage of its population, from the 
rude primitive shelter of the pioneer planter, to the walled, 
framed, and neat cottage structure of the present gener- 
ation. 

On the water's brink remains the half-filled, earth-built 
cellar, along the water way, where stood the log home of 
the first settler. But as the forest was opened before his 
axe, and the clearing extended back, we find the stone- 
walled cellar of a more permanent and luxurious abode on 
a higher elevation, by the ancient bridle path of spotted 
trees, leading to his remote next neighbor's door ; and 
finally, along the rounded, leveled, and well-beaten carriage 
road, still further back and more elevated to the crest of 
the river's valley, we meet the fine brick and wood cottage 
structure, adorned with architectural art, and well-to-do 
aspect of a higher developed civilization in a more refined 
and luxurious age, the exponent of more refined and culti- 
vated taste. Such is the gradation of the domestic devel- 
opment of some two centuries and a half. 

GEORGETOWN. 

In the Sagadahoc precinct, by act of incorporation, George- 
town had become the metropolis of the valley of the Ken- 
nebec, as it had been the scene of the ancient plantation 
sites, from Popham and Gilbert to Lake and Clark. Sam- 
uel Denney, an English emigrant, distinguished for his 
remarkable decision of character, industry, and the superi- 
ority of his attainments, took up his residence at Butler's 
Cove, where he built a block-house, in accordance with the 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 277 

custom of the age. He became a magistrate ; and the 
stocks in which were executed many of his own sentences 
— perhaps by his own hands — till lately were remembered 
as a terror to evil doers. Here, also, the early manhood of 
Governor Sullivan was spent in the study and practice of 
law ; and Butler's Cove on Arrowsic Island must have 
exhibited all the legal and executive importance of a shire- 
town village. 

On the banks of the Sagadahoc, opposite the site of 
Phipsburg Center, resided James, the ancestor of the Mc- 
Cobbs ; and the Donnels had succeeded to the possessions 
of Robert Gutch, at " Long Reach " above. Indeed, the 
final re-peopling of the Ancient Dominions had become 
established ; and Governor Belcher made a tour through 
the eastern country, visiting Pemaquid, Damariscotta, and 
Sheepscot ; and at Pemaquid he met the Indians of the 
East in conference. 

Yorkshire, heretofore embracing but one, now was broken 
into two regiments, and Samuel Waldo, the eastern Patroon, 
was assigned to the command. 

CLOSING EVENTS OP THE PERIOD. 

On the re-settlement of the country, the denizens of the 
forest had become numerous and bold, particularly the 
black bear of New England ; and under provocation, it 
became a dangerous foe. The eastern shores of the Sheep- 
scot are curved into a basin called the " Eddy," occasioned 
by a considerable reflex action of the tides, pressing through 
a gorge between the points of Squam and Folley Islands, at 
the Narrows entering Wiscasset Bay. The margins of this 
eddy were the site of tlie plantation clearings of tlie pioneers 
of the ancient precinct of New Dartmouth, then called 
Free-town, now Edgecomb by act of incorporation. Here 
was the Trask settlement, and not far back lived the Albees. 
The young men of these families, in early spring, were 



1 



278 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

accustomed to go down to the sea and eke out a subsistence 
by fishing and duck-hunting. The hollowed trunk of a 
hoary pine moulded into graceful water-lines, called a canoe, 
was the great vehicle of locomotion. 

John, ' the son of Samuel Trask, an original settler of the 
place, and two young Albees, in April embarked in a canoe, 
on the usual fowling and fishing excursion to the lower 
waters of the Slieepscot. A bear was descried making its 
way from shore to siiore, as they swept with the tide toward 
the sea, midway between Barter's and Squam Island. 

In defiance of remonstrances, the two Albees persisted in 
seeking a conflict with Bruin while he could be assailed to 
advantage in the water. The canoe was headed for the 
bear, whose head and face, water-borne, offered a tempting 
chance for sport to the inexperienced huntsmen. On a near 
approach, the attitude and the aspect of Bruin suddenly 
changed. Bristling with rage, he faced his pursuers, when 
a charge of small shot was fired into it. This act neither 
disabled the animal nor stayed Ids progress, but maddened 
him. With augmented ferocity he turned upon the canoe. 
As the bear raised his shaggy form over the prow to enter 
the canoe, Albee, clubbing his musket, aimed a blow at his 
head to beat him back. The next moment the gun was 
seen flying in one direction and the lacerated body of Albee 
in another, by a stroke of the beast's paw, when both dis- 
appeared under the water. Having cleared his way at the 
bow of the boat. Bruin made another attempt to board her. 
Then the brother Albee seized an axe, and making a stroke 
at the animal's head, the blow was warded off, and tlie axe 
sent after the gun. Albee sprang for an oar, which was 
broken like a pipe-stem, and himself knocked bleeding into 
. the water after his brother. The bear then mounted, and 
sat shaking himself on the cuddy deck, wiping his shot 

1 Narrative of Trask, R. Sewall, Esq. 



ANTE-EEVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 279 

broken face, and in complacent attitude, surveying the scene 
of his strife. 

When Trask saw that the bear would enter the boat at 
the bows, he leaped out at the stern, and swam for his life. 
Turning to look for his companion, who, although an expert 
swimmer, was seen struggling in the water, all bloody and 
torn, he perceived that the bear, having cleared the canoe 
and rested from the fight, had left his seat in the boat, and 
taken again to the water. Securing a fragment of the oar, 
Trask turned back to the boat, but Albec had disappeared. 

Gaining the canoe, he soon paddled to the shore, and 
seeking the camp of some wood-men, all started in search 
of the enemy, and found Bruin stretched out dead upon the 
beach. 

OCCASIONAL OUTRAGES. 

Lawless savages, in small parties, continued to hover 
about the white man's path, lurking for prey. They were 
usually isolated and irresponsible, acting independently of 
their chiefs, from motives of revenge, or habits of cruelty 
and thirst for blood, as occasion offered and in defiance of 
the peace. 

mcnbar's adventure. 

McNear was an early settler near the " ancient Sheepscot 
farms." ^ Three times he had been dragged into captivity 
by savage hands. On one occasion, as he threshed out his 
wheat alone in tlie barn, a grim savage sprang in and stood 
before him. Advancing upon him with upraised tomahawk, 
he cried, " Quick me ivalk you to Canada." McNear, start- 
ing forward, his flail still flying over his head, answered, 
" Til bet you half a ton of thatch of that ; " and at a blow, 
laid the Indian dead at his feet ! 

1 Joseph Cargill, Esq. ' 



280 ancient dominions of maine, 

cargill's escape. 

Cargill, whose sawmill stood on the stream near the resi- 
dence of his descendant, Joseph Cargill, Esq., while sawing 
one day in early spring, improving a freshet, as he stooped to 
adjust a log on its car, was surprised by the visit of a sav- 
age, who, raising his tomahawk, and looking to see where 
he could best inflict a fatal stroke, did not observe the relax- 
ing form of the sturdy lumberman as he suddenly rose from 
his inclined position, and by a back-handed stroke of his 
bar, made to revolve about his head, took the savage under 
the chin and across the throat, by which, in the twinkling 
of an eye, he was hurled out of the tail of the mill into the 
race below, and disappeared forever. 

LONG Edmund's perfidy. 

About this time, " Long Edmund," an Indian loafer about 
the settlement at Wiscasset Point, who frequented the log 
house of a Mr. Albee, treacherously betrayed the whole 
family to death. * 

Albee had gone with a grist, ^ probably over to Vaughn's 
mill at the Damariscotta Falls. Long Edmund also departed. 
Soon after his reappearance in the evening, a rush was 
heard at the door, while the lone wife and mother, gather- 
ing her infant in her arms, crouched in the corner, full of 
fear. In vain did Long Edmund strive to induce her to 
unbar their cabin door. The savage then rose to open it 
himself. It was summer. No light discovered her move- 
ments, and as the Indians were let into the room, hugging 
her infant close to her bosom, from behind the opening door 
the mother slipped out into the darkness ; and by an unfre- 
quented way, hastened to warn her husband, who, returning 
by another path, unfortunately missed her. 

• 1 Mrs. Holbrook's tradition. 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 281 

The wife took refuge with a neighbor ; but the husband 
arrived at his home, deposited his meal-bags at the door, 
and led his horse to pasture. As he stooped to lock the 
fetters to his horse's feet, he was shot by an unseen foe and 
wounded. After a stout resistance, the disabled man was 
killed ; and in the account of the death-struggle, given to 
his friends, Long Edmund, who was present, said, " He fi^ht 
all like one devil.'''' 

Albee's house and sleeping children were burned together, 
except the infant son who escaped in his mother's arms, and 
who in maturer years vowed terrible vengeance on the 
treacherous Long Edmund and his race, who suddenly dis- 
appeared in his old haunts at the Point, from among the 
living, never more to be seen. 

THE RESOLUTE PLANTER, 
n 

Defeated in their purposes to destroy Wiscas- 
set, the Indians broke up into parties, Avith a view 1750. 
to ravage Georgetown. The garrisoned village Sept. 25. 
of " Parker's Island " ^ was an object of peculiar 
offense. On their way to the attack of this strong-hold, 
within call of the garrison, they passed the dwelling-place of 
a planter. The house was fiercely assailed ; but the mas- 
ter maintained his ground till the savages had actually cut 
their way in througli the door, which they had hewn down 
with their battle-axes. 

In this extremity the defender of his home leaped from a 
back window and took to the water as the most feasible 



1 John Parker, whose original settlement on the soutliern extreme of this 
island gave to it this name, and " who was the first of the English nation 
that began to subdue the Land and undertook in the fishing Trade," was, 
with his son James, driven from his home at Kennebec to Casco Bay, and 
both killed at the fo.-t which was then taken. See Wharton's Deed to Par- 
ker. Deposition of John Phillips, 1748. MSS. Papers, Hon. Mark L. 
HQl. 



282 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

method of escape, swimming over toward Arrowsic. Deter- 
mined to cut him off, his pursuers seized a canoe ; and as 
they swiftly came up with him in their shuttle-bark, leaping 
Tiinder the influence of their well-plied paddles, their victim 
turned upon them, and seizing the birchen vessel, in a 
moment turned her upside down, precipitating the Indians 
headlong into the water ! In the ensuing life-struggle, the 
blood-thirsty sons of the forest were forced to let their vic- 
tim escape, who gained the shore, and eluded their pursuit. 
The war-party, foiled and chagrined at their ill-success, 
returned by another route to the north, and from the western 
sections of the State led into captivity some twenty or thirty 
persons. 

Cliarles Gushing was the commandant of the military 
defenses of this section of Maine. Capt. Jonathan William- 
son, who was also a sheriff of Yorkshire, ^ resident at Wis- 
casset, and Capt. Nichols at Sheepscot were su))ordinates in 
command, with whom were deposited the public arms and 
ammunition. 

The territory embracing the site of the " Sheep- 

1753. scot Farms," the ancient capital of the ducal 
June 19. county of Cornwall, was now incorporated by the 

name of Newcastle, which it still bears. Its cor- 
porate existence was honored by a gratuity of the laws of 
Massachusetts Bay, from the treasury of the State. 

PLANTATION OF DRESDEN. 

The savages continued to annoy the newly-opened 

1754. settlements, whose clearings emigration and enter- 
prise continually pushed into their ancient hunting 

grounds, being particularly irritated by the fires of the 
backwoodmen, which often spread from their clearings, and 
burned with ravaging fury the forests far and near. 

1 Original writ of service, MSS. papers, Hon. M. L. Hill. 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 283 

Their restlessness roused the fears of Government, which 
hasted to put the frontier posts in a state of preparation for 
war. 

An hiflux of Germans to the shores of Massachusetts 
Bay had suggested the project to the Plymouth proprietors 
of planting that race upon their eastern lands. Won by the 
advances of that company to its interests, a settlement was 
made on the waters of the Kennebec, opposite Fort Rich- 
mond, near and upon Swan Island, called " Frankfort." 
Such was the origin of Dresden. Tlie hamlet received 
accessions from French Huguenots, who, on the revocation 
of the edict of Nantz, came with the Protestant Germans to 
the newly-colo)iized Frankfort on the Kennebec, from the 
banks of the Rhine. Swan Island, the homestead of tlie 
Sachem Kennebis, delightful for situation, at the confluence 
of the Mun-doos-cotook and Kennebec, opened its rural 
prospect, a mile distant from the defenses of Frankfort 
below. 

FORT SHIRLEY. 

Two hundred feet square ^ were enclosed with pickets of 
timber, called a stockade. This work lay on the river mar- 
gins. Two block-houses of squared hemlock and pine tim- 
ber interlocked, were raised within, bearing aloft projecting 
stories of twenty-four feet square, and walls ten inches 
thick, surmounted with watch towers. 

Barracks were also built, and the work named Fort Sliir- 
ley. Tliis was the first settlement of the town of Dresden ; 
and Samuel Goodwin held the military command of the 
place. 

Transported to a region whose winters were long and rig- 
orous, and obliged to fell the enormous timber trees ere the 
earth could bring forth her fruit, or they could gather of 
her increase, this colony became much straitened. Fifty 

1 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 302. 



284 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

German families ^ had been led to the valley of the Kenne- 
bec by Maj. Goodwin to plant this hamlet. The habitations 
were reared along the bank of the river. No roads were 
opened till long after, the interior being a dense forest, a 
howling wilderness, between settlement and settlement, with 
nothing to gnide the uncertain traveler from clearing to 
clearing save a line of spotted trees. 

CITY OP STIRLING LAID OUT IN BRISTOL. 

While these new establishments were going up in the 
west, Waldo had induced a considerable emigration from 
near Stirling in Scotland to re-people the east. A city was 
laid out on Broad Bay in Bristol ; and half-acre lots set off 
in close contiguity, on a street half a mile long, on which 
each settler reared his log hut ; and the name of Stirling 
was given to the embryo city. . Patrician as well as plebeian 
blood mingled in the flow of this re-peopling tide from Scot- 
land. Mrs. Dickie was the daughter of " a laird." ^ But 
discouragement and disappointment overwhelmed the newly- 
settled town. "Strange sights and sounds assailed" the 
residents of Stirling. " Fire-flies glowed in the dark woods. 
Frogs croaked in every swale, and loons screamed in the 
evening twilight." Contending long with hunger and cold, 
" witches and warlocks" — every superstition of their father- 
land quickened ten-fold amid their wild New England 
homes — the settlement at length yielded to the fears of sav- 
age irruption, and was broken up. 

THE THOMASTON HAMLET. 

At this date Thomaston, the site of St. George's fort, was 
a quadrangular structure of one hundred feet on each face, 
sixteen feet high, built of hewn timber twenty inches square, 
and barracks of timber, built against each wall, were con- 

1 Frontier Miss. p. 248. 

2 Annals of Wanen, p. 85. 



ANTE-EEVOLUTIONAEY PERIOD. 285 

structed for family use. In the center of all was a good 
well of water ; and a covered way of stout timber led to the 
block-house at the river's brink ; and twelve to fifteen can- 
non were mounted. The settlers, at their own cost, in par- 
allel lines had reared block-houses above the fort, and sur- 
rounded all with a palisado ten feet high. At Pleasant 
Point was Henderson's garrison ; and in the site of the pres- 
ent town of Gushing, a stone block-house, enclosed with 
pickets, was Burton's fortification. On the St. George's 
river, further down, were four others, each of which accom- 
modated sixteen families, who had their several plantations, 
occupied with huts, probably of logs, and covered with bark. 

CONDITION OF THE EARLY SETTLERS IN THE EAST. 

The circumstances of the inhabitants, made up so largely 
of foreign emigration, unused to the perils and privations 
of a sparsely settled frontier, were often distressing in the 
extreme. One family in the Broad Bay precinct of Bristol 
subsisted a whole winter on frost-fish and four quarts of 
meal. Many ^ a German woman was glad to plant and hoe 
all day long for a quart of meal, or eight pence in money, 
or a quart of buttermilk ; and buttermilk and roasted pota- 
toes was a common as well as healthful repast. A patch of 
ground for potatoes was manured with rockweed carried on 
hand-barrows by men and their wives from the beach, aided 
by all the children who could labor ; and all who labored in 
the field still went well armed ; and when the alarm guns 
from the fort were heard, all fled to the neighboring garrison, 

SUFFERINGS OF WALDO's EMIGRATION AT BROAD BAY. 

Some twenty or more families, under the representations 
and influence of Waldo, landed at " Pleasant Point" on 
St. George's, from various parts of Germany. Here, packed 
in a sloop, they were transferred to Broad Bay, and distrib- 



1 Eaton's Annals, p. 89. 



286 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

uted among tho planters there, or crowded together in a 
shed erected for their shelter. It was in the month of Sep- 
■ tember. The bleak winds of autumn already had begun to 
sigh through the surrounding forest tops, anticipating the 
rigors of approaching winter. This shed, sixty feet long, 
had no chimneys. Here the destitute emigrants in iitter 
neglect were left, either to perish or to drag out a winter of 
unutterable sutfcring. Many froze to death. Many per- 
ished of hunger and privation, and their graves were not 
long since seen near the bridge. ^ 

WIDOW BLACKLEDGE. 

The story of this woman is full of interest and instruc- 
tion. The extreme northern point of Westport was early 
settled and fortiiied with the garrison of a Captain Decker, 
the ancient site of the Delano plantation, which had descend- 
ed to Decker by heirship. It stood on the point overlooking 
the gorge through which the deep waters of the Sheepscot 
expand into Wiscasset Bay, between the island of the ancient 
Jeremy Squam and Folley Island, which passage, from the 
flux and reflux of the tides, has ever since been called 
'" Decker's Narrows." Decker was a man of w^ealth and 
eminence in his day, having a store there, where the ruins 
of his wharf and warehouses were till recently seen on the 
waters of the Sheepscot shore ; and where ships from Eng- 
land were wont to lade their spars and masts for export. 

The Widow Blackledge, ^ during these perilous and 
pinching times, lived on the neighboring main. During a 
somewhat severe and protracted winter, she and her little 
ones were reduced to the greatest extremity of want ; and 
on a particular occasion, driven from her usual resort to the 
clam banks by a fierce and freezing fall of snow, on a cold 
wintry night, having cleaned the bones of her last herring, 



1 Eaton's Annals, p. 82. 

2 MSS. papers, Rev. S. Sewall. 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 287 

and divided all among her cliildren, with neither bread nor 
meal in her store, while they were locked in sleep, the for- 
lorn widow betook herself to the widow's God in prayer. 

In utter despair of any human help, she cast herself on 
her knees before Him " who hears the young ravens' cry," 
and in defiance of the mockery of the bleak winds and 
snows, which went with a rush and howl by her door, she 
made known her want. 

That night Capt. Decker retired to his pillow for repose 
in tlie midst of comfort and plenty. The moaning of the 
storm only lulled to a deeper sleep. But at midnight a vis- 
ion of want stood by his pillow and passed into his dreams. 
The anguish of a widow disturbed his repose, which this 
phantom of a night vision vividly sketched. He rose from 
his bed — looked out on the storm, whose fierce and biting 
blasts still swept the troubled waters of the bay. He re- 
turned to his pillow again, solaced with the piirpose of pay- 
ing an early morning visit to the lone Widow Blackledge. 
But the banished vision, gaunt and horrible, returned and 
drove him once more from his bed to the window — nor 
would it leave him till he filled a bag with meal and meat, 
and paddled his canoe over the storm-tossed tide, and bore 
relief to the praying mother and her famished babes ; and 
his raps at her door raised her from her knees to receive 
the bounty thus furnished by Him who delights to be known 
as the " widow's God and the Father of the fatherless " ! 

SAGACIOUS CAT. 

On the island of Jeremy Squam, a Mr. Rines had made 
his plantation. The husband and fatlier had been drafted 
and sent to the wars, and was thus forced to leave his little 
ones to the mercies of a lone wintry abode in the savage 
wilds of Westport. It was a season of great scarcity and 
distress in this war-wasted region, as we have seen. Soon 
the deep snows of winter shut out all resources from the 



288 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

store of roots and herbs in the forest, and the lioar frosts 
had fast locked up the hitherto open clam banks, and wrap- 
ped in ice-bound depths " the treasures there hid in the sand 
for the poor." Gaunt famine now pressed at tlie. door of 
the absent warrior's home till his wife and little ones began 
to feel the pinchings of hunger. 

At this juncture, ^ a favorite cat, bounding over the frozen 
waters of tlie bay to Monseag River, watclicd tlie crevices 
and openings in the icy floor of the bay, and thence plucked 
and dragged the little frost-fish playing up in search of air 
from their watery home, and day by day, brought them in 
for food till the ice was broken up ! Then tlie mother, seek- 
ing food by the shore-side one Sabbath morning, descried a 
dark body making for the land, which proved to be a large 
fat bear. Iler neighbors were called ; and when Bruin had 
reached the land, and emerging from the waters, began to 
shake his shaggy and dripping form, with well directed 
blows the hungry mother felled him to the earth. Thus 
was eked out a scanty subsistence, till the warmtli of the 
returning sun again opened the resources of nature for the 
support of life. 

Such was the physical condition of the early planters in 

our frontiers, when repeated acts of savage aggression called 

for the vigorous interposition of the arm of Gov- 

1755. ernment, and war was declared against all the 

June 10. Indians except the tribe of the Penobscots. 

French priests, notwithstanding the fearful ex- 
ample that had been made of Ralle, persisted in pressing 
their way into their ancient haunts, and savage ears were 
found ready still to listen to their treacherous counsel. 

Peter An-dr-o-u, from the ancient seat of Xorridgewock, 
visited the new settlement of Frankfort, to seduce there the 
French residents to the interests of the Romish Church ; 

1 Hon. S. Parsons' Narrative. 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 289 

and M. Bunyon accompanied the Jesuit to his home above 
Cushnoc. At the distance of half a mile from the eastern 
shore, he found a house environed with wigwams. ^ 

The exemption of the Penobscots from the calamities of 
war by proclamation, gave offense to the undiscriminating 
populace, who, remembering the wrongs suffered by their 
fathers and themselves at savage hands, thought only of 
violence and revenge ; and the acts of irresponsible parties, 
or isolated individuals, were charged on the entire race of 
red-men. 

The inhabitants would not remain at peace with the In- 
dians. Every rumor, every alarm, went to the account of 
the perfidy of the natives ; and every occasion was improved 
with avidity which afforded a pretext for revenge of tho 
white man's wrongs. Especially were these occasions sought 
by the volunteer chieftains and citizen soldiery, whose acts, 
were often marked with great recklessness and irresponsi- 
bility, characteristic more of a band of lawless freebooters^ 
than freemen. 

cargill's inhumanity. 

James Cargill of Newcastle held a commission to raise a 
scouting company as its chief. A party was organ- 
ized among his neighbors and led to the east, either 1755. 
to suppress a presumed trade between the Penob- July 1. 
scots and white men, or with a view to enrich him- 
self with booty and scalps. * He bivouacked on the shores 
of Broad Bay. In the morning he mai-ched through the 
forest around St. George's Fort. Some rangers of Capt. 
Nichols' company, with three men of St. George's, joined 
his scout. 

"With thirty-one men he marched to Burton's garrison 

1 Frontier Miss. p. 76. 

2 Eaton's Annals, p. 94. 

19 



290 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

below. Pressing still to the eastward, he crossed the river 
here, where a lone savage with his squaw and her infant 
papoose of sixty days lay by their camp fires. 

MURDER OF MARGARET MOXA. 

The valorous white men concentrated their fire on the 
defenseless and unwarned family group, and the death tale 
of thirty-one bullets reported a sanop slain, the squaw mor- 
tally wounded, and the papoose unscathed ! Tins done, the 
force rushed on to secure the plunder of their bleeding vic- 
tims, encountered the dying mother, still holding her babe, 
anxious only for its life, and in the silent but eloquent 
appeal of her condition to the white man's mercy, uttering 
the request that " her little nit might be taken to St. George's 
and delivered to Capt. Bradbury." One of the crew, more 
ruffianly than his fellows, civilized and Christian in name, 
but barbarous and brutal in fact, replied to the dying 
mother, " every nit will make a louse," and at a blow, dashed 
out the infant's brains before her eyes ! Such was the 
cruel fate of Margaret Moxa — a savage — but a woman 
and a mother, as she returned from the fort, on one of her 
accustomed errands of good will, to save her neighbors — 
the more savage white man — from impending perils. 

Seizing the canoe to make sure his retreat, Cargill pushed 
on from this scene of atrocities to " Owl's Head," where at 
sunset, discovering a body of natives, he shot nine of their 
number, tore off their scalps, and returning to the fort, 
exhibited them as trophies of his valor and success ! Car- 
gill was apprehended and tried for murder, but was acquit- 
ted by the jury. 

The cruel fate of Margaret Moxa was deeply deplored at 
the garrison. " Never shall I forget the deep and unappeas- 
able grief of the women of the fort," said one, " when they 
saw the scalp of her whom they had long regarded as a 
delivering angel ; " and the more humane and considerate 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 291 

loudly condemned the act of Cargill, and confidently pre- 
dicted that its perpetrators " would never die in their beds." 
The prediction was realized in the history of those in the 
company from about St. George's river. ^ 

HUGH Paul's adventure. 

The Pauls ^ were cotemporary with the Drowns at Pem- 
aquid, and were in Drown's service while surveying out his 
claim. Hugh Paul was a burly Irishman. On his return 
to Bristol from a visit to Robert Hodge, on the Sheepscot 
shore, accompanied by Hodge as guide to the trail of spotted 
trees, through the dense forests of Ped-coke-go-wake, on 
the top of a hill over which their route lay, they encoun- 
tered a black bear, whose huge proportions encouraged a 
saucy demeanor. Bruin, rising upon his haunches, faced 
the travelers as if to dispute their progress by that path. 
Hodge, taking counsel of his fears, thought discretion tiie 
better part of valor ; but Hugh Paul, nothing daunted, 
marched boldly up to Bruin, saying, — "sure he never 
turned out of the way for any man yet, nor faith would he 
for the baste." Hereupon drawing his jack-knife, which he 
carried between his teeth, and grasping a stone in each hand, 
he advanced, admonishing the unterrified brute of his duty 
to strangers, and the imprudence of his menacing attitude, 
saying, as he walked up, — " Get out of the way, you avil 
baste ; get out of the way ! An' faith sure, if ye don't, 
ye'll be sorry for it, Misther ! " Bruin, heedless of the 
admonition, reckless of his personal safety, only bristled up 
the more, when Paul let fly a rock, which, hurled as from a 
cannon's mouth with force and precision, rebounded from 
Bruin's nose, and in the recoil brought the beast helpless to 
the ground. Paul, springing to the back of his prostrate 

1 Eaton's Annals, p. 94, 95. 
2L. Commiss. Reports, p. 59. 



292 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

enemy, grasping the long hair of his shaggy neck for a bri- 
dle, mounted the bear, which, recovering his senses, thought 
it time to make good a retreat by taking to his heels. The 
wild Irishman ^ astride, Bruin bolted for the bottom of the 
hill, while the knife of the rider, driven to the hilt in his 
throat, soon laid him breathless and lifeless on the ground, 
no more to rise. Such were the perils of a journey to Bris- 
tol by way of Newcastle, and the horsemanship of a believer 
in St. Patrick's power to shield, " becase he had drove all 
the toads, snakes, and frogs out of ' swate Ireland.' " 

HOSTILITIES EENEWED. 

All efforts to allay savage excitement proved unavailing. 
Out of the distant east, emerging from the smoke and driven 
by the thunder of war from under the walls of Louisburg, 
the savages broke in upon the St. George's river towns. 
The fort was attacked. Defeated in their efforts to capture 
it, they succeeded in firing the garrison house, the mills and 
.dwelling-houses, destroying the cattle, and securing one cap- 
tive. The expedition against Louisburg had drained the 
country of its fighting men, who were wanted in defense of 
their homes. 

Garrisoned houses were still the prevailing architectural 
style of human abodes ; and for more than a generation, 
having proved a refuge, these structures of massive timber 
trees presented insurmountable barriers to the success of 
savage arts in war. All went armed. All were skilled in 
the knowledge and interpretation of savage tokens. All 
had acquired habits of great vigilance ; and it was with the 
utmost difficulty to effect a surprise. 

Scouts of armed white men coursing the deep forest 
recesses gave no chance to the wary, skulking savage in a 
war-path beset with such perils. 

i R. Sewall, Esq. 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 293 

No inhabitant dared to venture unarmed far from his for- 
tified home, nor into remote parts of the town, unless in 
companies. While some wrought, others stood guardsmen ; 
those who went to the house of God bore their loaded mus- 
kets ; " those who remained at home kept guard." ^ The 
rapid, successive report of three muskets was the usual sig- 
nal of alarm. 

CASUALTIES. 

At Damariscotta, the Hustons, aunt and grandmother of 
John Huston, earliest among the re-settling planters there, 
were slain, and Mr. Huston was led into captivity. 
Fort Frederick at Pemaquid was then assailed by July 19. 
the war party, which, approaching by stealth, de- 
scried a lone woman some three hundred yards distant. 
The opportunity of securing her scalp overcome all pruden- 
tial considerations. She was shot ; but the report of their 
fire-arms and the shrieks of their victim gave timely notice, 
and the returning crash of the shotted cannon and clouds 
of burning gunpowder from the embrasures and ports of 
the fort, soon enveloped all in darkness and consternation ; 
and amidst the coufnsion, the wounded woman cleared her 
keepers, rushed to the gates, and was saved. 

But Lieut. Proctor met the war party with his 
force, and in the attack he slew two chieftains and Sept. 5. 
captured another. 

Scalping parties prowled in the neighborhood of the 
white man's home, and hung about the by-ways and pasture- 
grounds of the white man's herds. At Sheepscot three men 
in their cornfields fell victims to the aim of more than a 
dozen Indians. Death leaped from every thicket, and lurked 
in every field. 

Extermination was the watchword ; and especially was 

1 Sullivan, p. 189. 



294 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

savage fury vented on tlie newly-opened clearings and 
advanced settlements, which were regarded as wanton inva- 
sions of their rights, holding that, by treaty stipulations, 
the English could dwell only " so far as the salt water 
flowed." 

A large party fell upon the newly-colonized hamlet of 
Waldoboro' ; and this protegd of the Brigadier General was 
consigned to ruin. Unprepared for the onset, the poor 
Germans were slain and captured, and all were dispersed, 
some escaping to St. George's Fort, and others to Fort Fred- 
erick at Femaquid. 

The abandoned homes were reduced to ashes ; and the 
settlement lay a waste till the close of the war. 

The herds about Pcmaquid were wantonly slaughtered. 
A party of five persons, on their return from public worship 
at Sheepscot, fell into an ambush. Leisurely wending their 
way homeward, unsuspicious of evil, a murderous fire 
was opened from the thickets upon them. One fell dead. 
Another was mortally wounded, and facing the grim savage, 
who rushed out to secure his bleeding scalp, the wounded 
planter rose before him, and by a well-directed shot, laid 
his tawny foe dead in his track. Three escaped. 

DEFENSES OF WISCASSET POINT. 

On the rocky eminence projecting its spur into the waters 
of the Sheepscot, known as Wiscasset Point, stood the fort, 
a quadrangular structure of timber, surmounted with quad- 
rangular corner sentry posts, ^ projecting from the upper 
stories, where the settlers of the Hooper plantation took 
refuge in times of peril. Covering a yet higher elevation 
back, overlooking the waters of the bay from the west, a 
garrison of massive timber commanded the approaches 
southward, and afforded the Williamson plantation an asy- 

I Hon. S. Parsons. 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 296 

lum. Captain Williamson was a man of eminence at Wis- 
casset Point. As a military and as a civil officer, his posi- 
tion made him conspicuous and well known to the Indians. 
Going with others to hunt and drive home their cattle from 
their range, his two companions were suffered to pass an 
ambuscade unmolested, while he was taken captive. His 
captors treated him with much courtesy, alleging that they 
had been sent by the Governor of Canada to take some one to 
Quebec who could give him information as to the movements 
of the English. He was carried to Canada, but soon re- 
stored by an exchange. Many cattle of the herds about the 
point were slaughtered at the time ; and the settlement 
here, in the journal of a Mr. How, who at the same time 
was held in prison at Quebec, is spoken of as the " New 
Town on Sheepscot River," from which Capt. Jonathan 
Williamson had been taken and brought to prison. ^ About 
the same period James Kinlade, James and Samuel Ander- 
son, and a Mr. Adams were led from Sheepscot as captives 
to Canada. 

HEROIC ACTION OF A SOLDIER AT ST. GEORGE. 

A detachment of thirteen men left the fort at St. George, 
and entered the forests half a gun-shot distant to peel bark 
to cover the whale-boats of the garrison, and secure them 
from the weather. The party scattered, and some of them 
incautiously laid aside their arms, and strayed apart from 
their companions. 

While thus dispersed, the Indians came iipon them, and 
sprang in between them and their fire-arms, which were 
thus secured. They killed one man, wounded four, and 
captured the sixth. The remnant of the party rallied and 
stood their ground, and were soon supported by the entire 
garrison, and a retreat to the fort was successfully executed. 



1 Drake's Tragedies, p. 138. 



296 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

During the skirmish an incident of great coolness and brav- 
ery occurred. 

One of the soldiers, whose age retarded the progress of 
his flight, was hotly pursued. In the extremity of his case, 
the old man suddenly wheeled in the race, and bringing Ms 
musket to his eye, sent a leaden message of death just in 
tune to arrest the upraised arm of his pursuer, while in tlie 
act of burying the keen-edged tomahawk in the brain of his 
victim ! The fire of the garrison held the savages at bay, 
and the old man seized and tore off the scalp of his tawny 
foe as he lay bleeding at his feet, and took with him the 
bloody trophy of his valor into the fort. 

Mcfarland's misfortunes. 

John McFarland had made his plantation remote from the 
protecting guns of Fort Frederick. His fruitful and attract- 
ive plantation enamored liis heart, and he determined to 
enjoy its rural deliglits in defiance of the perils of his iso- 
lated position. 

But the destroyer came. His herds were butchered in 
their feeding grounds. His fields were wasted. His habi- 
tation was burned down, and himself and his son, pierced 
with wounds, were left half-dead. 

The savages continued their depredations, and hunted 
the life of the white man with the persistence and ferocity 
of despair ; for " the Indians killed every person that came 
in their way." ^ 

The fortified settlement at St. George's and Fort Freder- 
ick at Femaquid, often the objects of attack, the Indians had 
determined to destroy. At break of day, one September 
morning — the usual time of attack — sixty painted braves, 
with a French commander, silently, slowly, and by stealthy 
approaches reached the vicinage of the fort at Pemaquid. 

1 Wm. Bums's Deposition, L. Co. Commiss. Report. 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 297 

Unfortunately five men were descried at a distance from the 
protection of the guns. The prey was too tempting for the 
prudence of savage calcuhitions, and these unwary men 
became the target for sixty bullets, which brought every one 
to the ground dead and wounded. Assault was made on 
the fort, the surprisal having been defeated. For more than 
two hours the place was stormed. But the massive walls of 
stone were impregnable, and could neither be scaled nor 
breached. Despairing of success, the assailants, repulsed 
and disheartened, retired to seek a more hopeful issue against 
the timber ramparts of St. George, but with no better suc- 
cess. 

We have now reached a period in our history closing the 
dark, bloody, and continuous scene of savage strife, covering 
nearly three generations of human beings, in which the 
entire native race, under the shock of each conflict, had 
been forced to recede more and more, till their ancient 
places had been made void. The entire race had become 
permanently displaced ; and nothing remained to disturb 
and oppose the intrusive white man but the convulsive reac- 
tion of its members, like the recoil of a quivering muscle, 
tenacious still of life though torn from its native trunk. 

A solitary savage, burning with the resentments of his 
wasted people, occasionally lurked at the white man's door, 
or cowered in the thicket by his home, or prowled in the 
adjoining forests to take his life. The savage did not at 
once forget his wrongs, nor the white man his fears. The 
people generally dwelt in their garrisons, and occasional 
murderous outbreaks kept alive the public alarm. 

MURDER AT WISCASSET POINT. 

A party of Kennebec Indians at Wiscasset ^ came 
in collision with some of the residents at the Point. Dec. 2. 
From some unexplained cause a quarrel arose, and 

' About 1750. Smith's Journal. 



298 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

in its issue one Indian was slain and two were wounded. 
The parties, Obadiali Albee and Richard and Benjamin Hol- 
brook, were arrested on charge of murder. The circum- 
stances excited general apprehension and public concern. 
"Wliile confined at Falmouth, the criminals escaped, either 
by riotous measures or collusion of their custodians. A 
reward was offered for the arrest of the fugitives ; and 
Harnden, who made the arrest, and Wilson, the jail-keeper, 
were subjected to a legal investigation. The fugitives finally 
surrendered for trial on the charge of murder at York. 
Obadiah Albee was transferred to Salem for safe keeping, 
and an order was issued to the Essex justices " to have the 
jail guarded l)y six men, three of whom to be on constant 
watch, lest Albee should escape and thus involve the Prov- 
ince in a war with the Indians." ^ 

From Salem Albee was sent back to York, where he was 
tried and acquitted of murder, but condemned for a feloni- 
ous assault. Government was disappointed and displeased, 
and the others were taken to Massachusetts for trial. The 
chiefs of the Kennebec Indians, the relatives of the deceased, 
were solicited to be present at the trial. Thirteen Indians 
appeared, but the trial was deferred, the prisoners remanded 
to Yorkshire, and they probably escaped unwhipt of justice. 
The aspect of affairs continued to lower and settle into 
deeper and darker gloom, which the Wiscasset homicide 
.rendered more portentous and foreboding. Measures of 
retaliation and revenge were meditated. One 
Sept. 11. hundred warriors, hei'alded by ten thousand ter- 
rible rumors, emerged from the depths of the 
northern wilderness, and fell with fury upon the fort at 
Richmond. Bleeding cattle came running for protection 
under the guns of the block-house, while many lay butch- 
ered around, a prey to the hungry savages. 

1 Annals of Salem, vol. v. p. 439. 



ANTE-EEVOLUTIONAEY PERIOD. 299 

The day was consumed in devastating the adjoining 
plantations. But the Indians let the favorable moment for 
decisive and successful action slip, and under cover of night, 
Capt. Goodwin and his command gained the fort. This 
circumstance disheartened the assailants, and they aban- 
doned the assault, and breaking up into small parties, scat- 
tered along each bank of the Kennebec, murdering and 
destroying all in their way. 

SWAN ISLAND DESTROYED. 

A portion of this war party fell on Swan Island, slaugh- 
tered the cattle, ravaged the fields, burned the habitations of 
the residents, and led some thirteen into bondage. James 
Whidden owned and occupied a portion of this fertile and 
romantic island. Its insular location at the confluence of 
the two rivers rendered " Swan Island " an important and 
conspicuous location as a desirable depot for trade with the 
aborigines. 

At this time the daughter of Whidden, who was married 
to Lazarus Noble of Portsmouth, resided with lier father. 
A gaiTisoned hamlet adorned this islet, which had from time 
immemorial been a favorite resort. ^ About the break of 
day, two lads went out of the block-house, and left open the 
gates ; and a number of Indians, watching the opportunity, 
rushed into the fort, and secured its unarmed occupants. 
Whidden and his wife took to the cellar and escaped. 
Noble and his workmen, at the head of tlie stairway, de- 
fended the passage by firing upon the Indians as they forced 
their way up in defiance of the murderous discharge. They 
pushed on without waiting to return the fire, and seized 
Noble and his wife and seven children, with Timotliy Whid- 
den and Mary Holmes. The prisoners were conducted to 
the water-side, where they were fast bound together. This 

1 Tragedies of the Wilderness, p. 165 — 7. 



300 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

done, the Indians returned and fired the premises, burning 
tlie storehouses and plundering the dwelling-places. Pom- 
roy, an aged shingle weaver, was captured in the neighbor- 
ing wood. Having secured their plunder and captives, all 
marched for Canada ; but the aged and burdensome Pom- 
roy was shot, and the other captives safely delivered and 
sold at Quebec. 

Fanny, a child of Noble, a year and one month old, was 
taken to the city of Montreal, where she became the prop- 
erty of the lady of St. Aiige Charl^, a merchant of that 
city. To the kitchen of this merchant the little Fanny had 
been taken by her Indian master. 

The servant called Mdme. St. Augd Charl^'s attention to 
the infant captive, which in rags and dirt crept over the 
tiles of the kitchen floor, in pursuit of the fallen crumbs 
and cooking offal lodged in the cracks. 

The emotions of the maternal heart were at once stirred, 
when on noticing the famished child, it seized the lady's 
dress to hide its nakedness, and burst into tears. The appeal 
was irresistible. Mdme. St. Auge embraced the child. It 
clung to that embrace, and repaid the kindness with fond 
and childlike caresses. This lady had recently been made 
childless by the visitation of death. 

The little Fanny was purchased, cleansed, and arrayed in 
the vestments of the deceased little one, and laid in her 
couch, while with infantile prattle and affection she endeav- 
ored to repay the debt she owed her benefactress. She was 
reared as a daughter, and the affection of the foster parents 
was heartily returned. ^ 

In the sequel, Fanny reached womanhood under genial 
influences, became attractive in person and acquirements, 
but public authority at length severed the ties between the 
foster parents and the child, and forced her return to her 
home, where she became a teacher of youth, and subse- 
quently married a gentleman of wealth. Her brother 



ANTE-EEVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 301 

Joseph, however, adopted the life and habits of the Indians, 
among whom he lived and died as a member of the St. 
Francois tribe. 

DRESDEN ASSAULTED. 

From Swan Island a band of Indians passed up the east- 
ern river, and lurked about the outskirts of the Frankfort 
plantation. At sunrise, Poniroy was waylaid on his return 
from milking, and shot dead at his door ; but a Mr. Davis, 
who occupied a room in the same house, roused from his 
slumber by the report of the gun, sprang to the door, when 
the Indian thrust in liis musket barrel. Davis seized the 
weapon, and with the aid of his women, wrested it from the 
Indian's grasp, who thereupon snatched up an infant child 
in the outer kitchen, and made off with it, while his fellow, 
from a covert in the neighboring field, shot Mr. McFarland, 
when the war party departed, carrying two men prisoners to 
Canada. 

EXPEDITION AGAINST WISCASSET. 

The main force of this body of northern Indians, leaving 
Fort Richmond, re-embarked and paddled down the Ken- 
nebec. At Long Reach it divided, one party diverging to 
the eastward by Hockomock, to destroy Wiscasset and the 
Sheepscot towns, and the other menacing Georgetown below. 
The dwelling-houses along the route were burned, and two 
prisoners were taken ; and the whole region would have 
been wasted, had the Sheepscot expedition succeeded in sur- 
prising the block-house at Wiscasset. A Mr. Hilton, an 
emigrant from Dover, New Hampshire, was slain, and his 
son made captive. 

BATTLE AT WISCASSET. 

The whole country had become alarmed, and the settlers 
ran to their fortified places. Susan Colby was in her girl- 



302 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

hood, and had gone with her mother into tlie garrison, 
whose sheltering stockade crowned a considerable eminence 
overlooking the bay and narrows, and commanding the Wil- 
liamson settlement below. The slope of the eastern front 
cleared for planting grounds, ran down to the shore margins 
of the bay in a well cultivated lawn, which encircled the 
hill-top south and west, and then fell off into a rocky and 
uncleared ravine on the north and east. 

A flotilla of canoes shot with the rays of early dawn 
around the head of Jeremy Squam Island, by Delano's gar- 
rison, and sped across the bay toward Hooper's plantation 
on the point above. The painted savages debarked near 
this point, and glided through the alder-swamps, around the 
Hooper's garrison toward that of Williamson on the more 
distant hill-top south. 

Two small iron cannon were a part of the munitions of 
this defense. The party destined to surprise and sack the 
block-house crept from the swamp into the ravine and up 
the intervening steep to storm the place. As they lurked 
for an opportunity to begin the assault, Obadiah Albee ^ and 
Andrew Florence went out to stretch their pigeon nets on 
the western slope in rear of the garrison. They had hardly 
accomplished their design ere the report of their fire-arms 
and the shout of battle revealed the proximity of the sava- 
ges. Florence fell dead, and Albee, wounded, retreated 
toward the garrison gates, facing the pursuing Indians with 
his fire-lock presented, which held them at bay till he had 
entered and was safe. 

Meanwhile the alarm had been given, and the garrison 
roused to arms for defense. The cannon were charged 
heavily with musket balls, scraps of iron, and other deadly 
missiles, and trained to bear on the thickets, where were 
seen gliding the bodies of the savage foe. The match was 

1 Mrs. Holbrook. Mrs. Coleby's Narrative. 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 303 

applied, and amid the roar of their discharge and the crash 
of falling limbs and tree-tops, the death yells and whoops 
echoing long and loud through the deep forests, told that it 
was not without effect. A reception as unlooked for as it 
was fatal filled the savages with dismay. 

HAUNTED GULLY. 

The noise of battle borne on the wings of the still morn- 
ing drew a scouting party from its patrol between Dresden 
and Slieepscot toward the scene of conflict, which, coming 
suddenly up in the rear, cut off the retreat of the Indians 
to their canoes. They then fled toward Woolwich, so hotly 
pursued that a warrior was left to the white man's burial in 
the ravine where he fell, ou the brink of the gully to the 
north of the garrison, whose headless trunk, in ghastly and 
gory aspect, was wont to hold nightly vigils near the spot, 
and watch over the bloody grave in mute and terrible 
silence, beckoning to the terror-stricken traveler ; and in 
the traditions of a superstitious age, on account of these 
night visions of this horrible phantom savage, the passage 
was called the " Haunted Gully." Delano's garrison ^ com- 
manded the point of the Tipper extremity of Westport, in 
early times a central and conspicuous position, and which 
afforded a safe retreat to the settlers on " Je-won-ke Neck," 
below the Hooper and Williamson plantations. On the 
Woolwich bank of Monseag river, midway in the angle 
formed by the old and new intersecting Bath roads, stood 
the Hilton garrison. 

MRS. Delano's escape. 

Mrs. Delano and her daughter were wont to pass over by 
Abater to their plantation on the neck below, near where the 
burial place of the primitive settlers on Je-won-ke, ( now a 



1 Mrs. Cushman. 



304 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

dense forest of tall grown pines along the river banks ) is 
found. 

On one occasion, the daughter became terror-stricken 
with evil presentiments, while she and her mother plucked 
the weeds from their homestead garden. It was the custom 
with the Indians to lie in wait near the white man's haunts 
for days together to secure a victim. Like wolves they 
prowled about his door, or laid in his path. Urged by what 
then seemed the unreasonable fears of her child, the mother 
consented to depart, and they had hardly put off beyond 
bullet distance when a savage rose under the river's bank 
and fired. Mrs. Delano and her daughter escaped. 

DEATH OF BOYNTON. 

But Hilton, his son, son-in-law, and a Mr. Boynton, resi- 
dents of the Monseag plantation, were less fortunate. Leav- 
ing the garrison for the scene of their labor, they crossed to 
the opposite bank of the narrow river, where they were 
clearing land. A party of Indians lurked in a barn, near 
their place of labor, and as soon as the men had scattered 
in the prosecution of their toil, they were fired upon. The 
elder Hilton fell wounded to his knees, in which attitude he 
fought with the utmost desperation, till overcome by fatigue, 
loss of blood, and numbers, he was at length slain ^ out- 
right. His son was killed at the first fire. Boynton, un- 
harmed, fled and sought concealment under a log covered 
with brush heaps. While thus hid from view, his dog, at- 
tracted to the spot by the scent of his master's body, stood 
over the place of his concealment, whining. The circum- 
stance discovered his master's retreat to those who sought 
his blood. Boynton was tomahawked. The whole transac- 
tion was in view of the garrison, where Mr. Gray, an aged 
but resolute man, defended the women and children ; and 



1 ]Mrs. Cushman and Boynton. 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 305 

as the savages re-crossed the river near to the garrison, and 
passed near to it with one of the Hiltons a prisoner, he 
recklessly rushed out, leaving the garrison gates open, to 
get a shot at the murderers. He succeeded in cutting 
through the belly of the tallest savage by a well-directed 
musket ball, who, gathering his broken stomach in his hands, 
ran with savage yells into the forest near, and whose bloody 
trail indicated that he had received a fatal wound. 

WISCASSET PLANTERS MASSACRED AT PEMAQUID. 

The abundance of alewives in Pemaquid River was a 
source of subsistence to the neighboring settlers. It was a 
custom to visit this point to obtain a supply of these fish in 
their season. From the Hooper settlement a party ' of five 
men went to Pemaquid by way of the Sheepscot on a fishing 
excursion. The fish-place was above Port Frederick. On 
reaching it, wliile busied in the catch, the party were sud- 
denly attacked by the Indians, and all slain but one, who 
managed to escape, and eluding his pursuers, slipped under 
the roots of a mighty hemlock upturned, where in close con- 
cealment he lay till the savages departed. As he crouched 
in his hiding-place with breathless anxiety, he could hear 
the tread of the savage panting above him, till foiled, he 
withdrew from the pursuit. 

The survivor crawled from his hiding-place, and returned 
to Wiscasset by way of Damariscotta ; and a body of armed 
men immediately visited the scene of slaughter, where they 
found the decaying corpses of their slaughtered neighbors,, 
to which they gave sepulture on the spot where they fell. 

Captain Williamson was again captured. The men at, 
Hooper's garrison had left for Vaughan's mills, and William- 
son remained to guard the women and children. Ventur- 
ing out a short distance to an alder swamp, not far from the^ 

1 R. Sewall, Esq.'s, Narrative. 

20 



806 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

site of the Episcopal church in Wiscasset, a scout of ludians 
seized and led him away. His cry alarmed the garrison, 
which now occupied alone by resolute women, was by them 
successfully defended by stratagem. To deceive tlieir cred- 
ulous enemies, disguised in the attire of their husbands and 
fathers, the women exhibited themselves to view in military 
array as men mustering for battle ! Alarmed by these 
movements, the savages would know of their captive the 
force of the place, when Williamson ' held up all his fingers 
in such countless array as to persuade them that discretion 
was the better part of valor. The alarm guns recalling the 
men on their way to Sheepscot, their unexpected appearance 
added speed to their flight toward Canada. 

TOPSHAM. 

A garrison was now constructed near the site of 
1756. Topsham, one of tlie Merry Meeting towns which 
had grown up from the early clearings at Pleasant 
and Pulton's Points and the mouth of Muddy River, where 
some eighteen families now resided ; and the defense of the 
place was in charge of Capt. Lithgow. 

The triangular conflict between France, England, and 
Spain involved the frontiers of New England by exciting 
the ancient allies of France to active and violent measures. 
Burton's garrison was attacked, two men scalped, and one 
wounded. Coasting vessels were captured and burnt, and 
fishing vessels on the coast with their crews were destroyed. 
During these conflicts the warrior Poland was shot at Wind- 
ham, by the aim of the noted Manchester ; and his body, 
blackened and pierced, was buried beneath the roots of an 
upturned pine bent from its place, so that the return should 
make both his grave, and do the rites of sepulture to the 
fearless chieftain. 

I Mrs. Cushman. 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 30T 

DEATH OF RUTHERFORD. 

In the midst of these commotions, Rev. Robert Ruther- 
ford, tlie religious teacher of Gov. Dunbar, the father of the 
policy and faith of the Kirk of Scotland, here died at his 
post, sixty-eight years of age, whose pious sympathy and 
counsel were now lost to the distressed and war-worn inhab- 
itants on the river of the St. George, — the pioneer herald 
of the cross in the East, whose ashes yet repose on its banks, 
and over whose now peaceful and thrifty homes of a gener- 
ation then unborn, his sanctified spirit, with those of the 
ancient dead, there may hover. 

preble's massacre. 

Arrowsic was again menaced. Its northern extremity 
liad become a central point, on account of the garrison 
house of Preble, one of the earliest re-settling inhabitants 
of the Arrowsic towns. A ferocious band of savages landed 
at Preble's Point, and shot Mr. Preble while at work in his 
planting grounds. Mrs. Preble, busied in her household 
duties at a table near the wooden window, the shutter of 
plank ajar, caught a glimpse of the shadow of a savage on 
the wall. She turned and sprang for the firelock hanging 
above the manteltree, and while in the act of grasping it 
with her arms outstretched toward the piece, a ball from the 
unerring Indian's aim through the opened shutter pierced 
her heart, ^ and she fell dead on the hearth-stone. 

The children, a son and two daughters, were spared for 
captivity ; and they were treated with unwonted affection 
and kindness during their perilous traverse of the pathless 
wilderness to Canada. But the inhumanity of their savage 
captors was fully attested, although the children were often 
carried in savage arms, and made the participants of every 
savage luxury. 

1 Narrative of tlie widow of Rev. Samuel Sewalf. 



308 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

ATTACK ON HARNDEN's GARRISON. 

At a point called " The Ferry," on the Kennebec, stood 
the garrison of Harnden, about which clustered the chief 
settlement of the Nequaseag purchase by Bateman and 
Brown, now known as Woolwich. 

In the attack of this party of savages, Miss Motherwell, 
eighteen years of age, happening beyond the gates, was 
seized. She was related to the children of the Preble fam- 
ily, now captives of this war party. Annoyed by the cries 
of the infant child of the murdered Prebles, the Indians 
put it to the breasts of the captured girl, and bade her give 
it suck. With a heart full of pity for the famished babe, 
with tears she replied, "I am not a mother." Snatching 
the little one from her embrace, her savage master dashed 
its head against a rock, and at one blow ended its complaints 
and its life ! The garrison, however, was not taken ; and 
the savages retired, after having met a like result in an 
attempt on the garrison on the lower end of Arrowsic, and 
turned their fury against the herds and cattle of the inhab- 
itants, doing all the mischief in their way. 

But Commander Lithgow, of the Topsham fort, 
1757. did not escape unscathed. An ambush surprised his 
small command. Two were wounded at the first 
fire ; but in the skirmish which followed the debt was paid 
by the fall of two of the Indians. Disheartened at length, 
the savages withdrew, carrying off the dead bodies of their 
fallen comrades, but meeting an opportunity, retaliated the 
injury by slaying two white men on their passage up the 
river. 

THE CAPTURE AT LONG REACH. 

The homestead of Robert Gutch, " Long Reach," seems 
to have been peculiarly exempt from the casualties of savage 
assault. But Philbrook, one of the earliest re-settling occu- 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 309 

pants of this ancient plantation, with his Irishman Maloon, 
were surpi-ised at their plow, and captured by a scout. Hav- 
ing crossed "Whisgeag"oii their way northward, before 
they were suffered to rest, the Irishman suddenly roused 
from his apparently lethargic state, with marked indifference 
to his state, coolly asked of his master, " And who will take 
care of the oxen to-night ? " " And sure, I'll soon do it 
myself," he added, in reply to the eclioes of his own voice, 
on perceiving the offense his apparent levity had given his 
master. 

Reaching the St. Lawrence, Maloon was sold to a ship, 
about setting sail. At the mouth of the river this ship was 
captured, and taken into Boston, where Maloon was released, 
and in less than six weeks after his capture, reached his old 
home at " Long Reach." 

" TWENTY cow PARISH." 

The plantation, now stirred Avith the movings of a self- 
reliant independence, petitioned, and was set off from the 
metropolis of the Kennebec on Arrowsic, as a separate 
ecclesiastical existence. The new parish was the nucleus of 
a new town. The movement was viewed with suspicion and 
treated with contempt by its meti'opolitan parent, and in 
derision called the " Twenty Cow Parish " by the self-com- 
placent residents of Georgetown on Arrowsic. 

We have now sketched the last acts of savage aggression 
that have tinged the history of settlements on the Sagadahoc, 
and while horrible visions of barbarism have afflicted our 
view in the repeated desolation of the Arrowsic towns, 
adorning the east bank of the Sagadahoc, the ancient mis- 
sionary home of Robert Gutch — " Long Reach" — then the 
"Twenty Cow Parish" — now the " City of Bath" — appears 
to have had a happy exemption from the scenes of blood and 
devastation which have overwhelmed the adjoining eastern 
plantations. 



310 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

ASPECT OF THE EAST. 

In the east the spirit of savage resentment lingered still for 
vengeance on the encroacliing white man. Government was 
anxions to cultivate amicable relations with the Penobscots, 
and under its commanders at George's, was accustomed to 
hold friendly interviews under the protection of a white flag. 

KELLOCK'S ACHIEVEMENT. 

A body of about forty Indians had concentrated in the 
neighborhood of Thomaston. A scout of eighteen men per- 
sisted in following their trail. In an hour tlie scout return- 
ed with a single scalp, under the following circumstances. 

The Indians had been into the fort, and when they de- 
parted were warned to beware of the block-house men. Their 
departure was known to Alexander and David Kellock, who 
started in pursuit with their men, in close Indian file. The 
night was dark. A mile distant, a solitary pack lay by the 
path side. Arrested by this, the pursuing party discovered 
the Indians a little off the road. Interpreting the pack to 
be set for a decoy, each man gave his file-leader a grip. Thus 
the party were brought to a silent lialt. A second elapsed, 
and the loud snore of a sleeping savage betrayed his place 
of repose, when the flash of a musket, and the passage of 
its ball, revealed the unconscious sleeper, in a prodigious 
leap, falling back into the arms of death ! 

Him they scalped. At once, on both sides of the way, the 
flash of fire-arms and the rattle of musketry unmasked an 
ambuscade. The whoops of the Indians, the sliouts of the 
white men, and the flashes of musketry were the only marks 
of the contending races, till the darkness forced a separa- 
tion. 

The garrison house of Elwell at Meduncook was attacked. 
The father and two sons held the door. The place was 
lighted with port-holes morticed through the timber, in place 
of windows. The wife and mother stationed at the port-hole 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 311 

with the pistol of her husband, fired at the shadows darken- 
ing her liglit, and very soon the yells of a wounded Indian 
wakened the echoes of the forests, and called his comrades 
to his succor, when the party withdrew. 

PERILS OP FRONTIER LIFE. 

The house of a Mr. Piper, at Broad Bay, was, before the 
morning light had fairly dawned, made the point of an am- 
buscade. On opening his door, Piper, coming out for wood, 
was sliot dead. His wife, in the greatest consternation, seized 
her sick infant, and fled to the cellar through a trap door, 
whicii was closed upon her. The outside door was securely 
barricaded. Returning to guard the door, which resisted 
the efforts of the Indians to break down, her infant left in 
its place of concealment below, the heroic mother was shot 
from without through the door. Thus securing entrance, 
the war party plundered the house, but the infant was left 
undiscovered and unharmed in its retreat. 

While defending the laborers engaged in hauling wood to 
a coasting sloop,' Capt. Kent, Remely with his scout at Broad 
Bay were alarmed by the report of fire-arms a mile north 
of their position. Ilunior shortly after announced that a 
woman had been slain on the east shore at the narrows. In 
the sloop's boat a detachment was sent to the scene of the 
murder, where " the body of a man was found at the edge 
of a wood, and the woman at the house, shot, scalped and 
stabbed and mangled. The axe was lying by the man, and 
the Indian hatchet was left where it had been struck, buried 
in the woman's skull." 

It seems the man and his wife and son had left tlie garri- 
son for their plantation. The man went to his field. The 
wife and son remained at the house. Having killed the 
husband and father, an Indian came into the house and set 

1 Remely's Journal. 



312 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

his gun at the heart of the sick child, which missed fire. 
The mother then sprang on the Indian, pitched him out of 
doors and fastened them against him. But through a crevice 
the Indian got siglit of his victim, and killed the mother, 
while the son crept into the cellar and escaped. 

We have here an unvarnished picture of the perils of 
frontier life in the new settlements of the Ancient Dominions 
in the days which tried men's souls. 

FINAL DEFEAT OF THE FRENCH AND INDIANS. 

Governor Pownal had succeeded Shirley, and the 

1758. long projected expedition of a combined French and 
Indian movement upon St. George's Fort, for the ut- 
ter destruction of all the eastern settlements, began its dem- 
onstrations. The activity and energy of Pownal, however, 
forestalled its movements ; and by throwing into the eastern 
defenses a large supply of men and subsistence, and going 
in person to receive the enemy, he thwarted their plans. 

Within thirty-six hours after, a force of four hundred 
French and Indians appeared. An assault was made, but no 
impression on the place, the defenders of which no menaces 
could intimidate. Disheartened and foiled, the besieging 
force withdrew, and venting their rage upon the inoffensive 
herds, which were butchered in merciless profusion, the body 
retired. 

Wolfe's victory. 

Such was the issue of the last attempt of the savage 

1759. and his allies to expel the English race from their 
l^omes, in these ancient hunting grounds. The in- 
trepid Wolfe, on the Plains of Abraham under the walls of 
Quebec, had now forever settled the question of the suprem- 
acy of France on American soil in a pitched battle, the issue 
of which, with the life of the hero, extinguished the power 
of France in the western world. The ties of sympathy 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 313 

which had hitherto swayed the savage hordes bordering on 
our north-eastern frontiers, by this great event were effect- 
ually loosened. It paralyzed forever the hand that had so 
long trained barbarian men to a cruel and bloody service. 

The northern hive still swarmed, but was at once emptied 
of the evil spirit which had so long and so successfully 
brooded over dark designs, in which fanaticism, superstition, 
and bigotry had fostered their purposes of blood. 

The effects of the fall of Quebec placed the Canadas in 
the hands of the government of England. Simultaneously 
with this mighty military achievement of Wolfe in the north, 
Gov. Pownal pushed the most formidable frontier defenses 
up Penobscot Bay in the east. On a crescent-shaped eleva- 
tion, overlooking the west margins of this magnificent body 
of water, near its head, in the town of Prospect, a block- 
house and barracks, environed with strong earth-works, were 
so constructed as to command the ingress and egress to the 
river above from the bay below. The newly erected works 
were called Fort Pownal, and effectually restrained and 
overawed the eastern Indians, now disheartened and de- 
serted of their ancient allies. Permanent peace began now 
to dawn, and the European race was left unmolested to 
secure a permanent foothold on the soil where it had so long 
contended for a new home, at a sacrifice of generations of 
blood and peace. New towns sprang up rapidly, as changes 
in the civil organizations of the ancient dominions of Maine, 
and the increase of its population warranted. 

The ancient Nequaseag, tbe home of Mohotiwormet, the 
purchase of the early Pemaquid planters, Bateman and 
Brown, the birth-place of Sir William Phips, was incorpo- 
rated as Woolwich, a name derived and suggested from the 
relation of its locality to the Reach in Sagadahoc, like to 
that" of a town in England of the same name on the river 
Thames. 

The rapid and mighty changes now sketched had over- 



314 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

1760. whelmed the remnants of the aboriginal race with 
utter despair, in its efforts to stay or turn back 
the tide of civilization by force. The spirit of resistance 
was cowed and crushed ; and the aborigines, worn out 
and wasted, left to their fate by the power that had so long 
pampered their prejudices for selfish and sinister ends, now 
sought the protection and the fruits of peace under the 
shadow of the people they had so long and so ruthlessly 
sought to destroy. 

Peace was made. General Preble at Fort Pownal ^ was 
visited by the Penobscots, who said they wished to dwell 
near the fort, and enjoy the protectio)i, neighborhood, and 
friendship of the English. Sockaiteon, Sockebasin, with 

two other chiefs went to Boston, and entered into 
Apr. 29. a treaty with the Governor of Massachusetts, 

which has remained to this day. 

BREAKING UP OF GARRISON LIFE. 

The necessity having ceased, garrisoned homes were 
deserted. The iidiabitants returned to their farms and 
dwelling-places, and the block-houses, grim and unsightly 
monuments of dangers past, were left to solitude and decay. 

Captives returned to homes, no more to be disturbed with 
the howl of the war-whoop and the gleam of the battle-axe. 
Yorkshire became bloated with life, struggling to extend its 
domain for a more independent exercise of its civil functions, 
and was broken in two. 

LINCOLN COUNTY ORGANIZED. 

The territory within which the scene of our 

June 19th. narrative is hjid, the eastern fragment of the 

sundered Yorkshire, was at once organized into 

a new civil division, and called Lincoln Comity ; and the 

1 Williamson's Hist, vol ii. p. 344. 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 315 

precincts of Frankfort setttlcment, on the " Miin-doos-co- 
took," and tliat of the Hooper plantation at " Wissacas- 
sick" Point, were incorporated as " Fownalboro '," and 
made the shire-town or metropolis of the new county. 
Thus the ancient Sagadahoc, Sheepscot, and Pemaquid 
plantations of the colonial period — the ducal State of James 
II. of England — were, in the revolutions of time, merged 
again into one body, which continues to the present day, an 
embodiment of what was the ancient dominions of Maine, 
if we except the recently projected fragment, hardly yet 
fixed in its owu orbit on the west, and still a satellite of 
Lincoln from wliich it has been struck off, appropriately 
named Sagadahoc County. 

ASPECT OF SOCIETY. 

The circumstances of peril and the protracted scenes of 
barbarian life, through which the entire generation had 
struggled, of course had im})arted to the population of this 
region a wild and barbaric character. 

Unused to any of the luxuries of civilized life, or indeed 
the comforts of home, the hope of securing the enjoyment 
of simple existence undisturbed by rude alarms — safe from 
savage assault, — was an acquisition in which all other inter- 
ests merged, and which was the great end and aim of enter- 
prise and effort. 

FRONTIER MISSIONARY. 

The details of Mr. Bailey's experience, the missionary at 
Fownalboro', ought not to excite our surprise so much as 
our regret. 

Few roads had been opened, and along the banks of the 
rivers and sea-board, the settlements — or plantations as then 
called — were accessible only by water. 

" In summer, the canoe held the place of the wheeled car- 
riage ; while in winter, the icy surface of the frozen river 



316 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

formed the principal highway for the sleigh and even for the 
ox-sled with its heavy load." ^ Of course, the inhabitants 
were poor and ignorant, " without the means of religious or 
secular instruction." 

POWNALBORO'. 

Pow-nal-boro', a town perpetuating the remembrance of 
the administration of Governor Pownal, now was peopled 
by " one hundi'ed and fifteen families ; " and its western in- 
habitants were in danger of " losing all sense of religion," 
or of becoming the dupes of " Popish missionaries." They 
were frontier men. " Barred from the advantageous culture 
of the soil by their exposure to the incursions of a barbarous 
race — a terrible foe — their poverty was extreme." ~ The 
site of the fort at Richmond embraced a chapel, and its 
clearings, " a farm ; " and this military depot afforded Mr. 
Bailey a home, and was the scene of his official duties as a 
center, at the outset ; and this opening, though a frontier 
military station, is said to have " peopled very fast." 

Mr. Bailey had now congregations at Pownalboro' 
1762. and Georgetown, the ancient metropolis of the valley 
of the Kennebec, numbering more than " fifty com- 
municants ; " -^ and the Sheepscot and Damariscotta Planta- 
tions were reckoned among the " new settlements ; " while 
the valley of the Kennebec, within the range of Mr. Bailey's 
parochial labors, embraced a population of " seven thousand 
souls ; " ^ and though a resident of Richmond Fort, and of- 
ficiating in its chapel, the most of his parishioners were res- 
idents on the opposite side of the river, and in Pownalboro. 
The aborigines of the land still lingered near the places 
of their ancient and favorite resorts, barbarism lagging in 

1 F. Miss. p. 78. 

2 F. Miss. p. 256, note E. 

3F. Miss. p. 81. 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 317 

its retreat, retarded by the instincts and associations of af- 
fection. 

" A great number of Indians " frequented the neighbor- 
hood. They were tlie remains " of the ancient and formid- 
able Norridgewock tribe," still leading " a rambling life" ; 
very savage in dress and manners ; eking out a precarious 
subsistence entirely " by hunting," having a language of 
their own, but universally speaking French ; devoted child- 
ren of the Romish church, their aversion to the English 
was implacable, whom they " would extirpate because French 
missionaries had taught them to believe they were the mur- 
derers of the Savior of mankind ! " Such is a graphic 
sketch of the fragments of a broken and fast-receding race, 
who were the neighbors of the early inhabitants of Wiscasset 
and Dresden. 

The picture drawn of the population of this then frontier 
section is full of interest and instruction. The people were 
thinly settled along the river banks, " were in general so 
poor, not to say idle, that their families almost suffered for 
necessary food and clothing. They lived in miserable huts 
which scarce afforded them shelter from the inclemency of 
the weather. Their lodgings were worse than their food, 
clothing, or habitation. Multitudes of children were obliged 
to go barefooted the whole winter, with clothes hardly cover- 
ing their nakedness ; half their houses were without chim- 
neys ; many had no beds but heaps of straw, and Avhole 
families subsisted, for months together, on potatoes roasted in 
the ashes." ' This certainly is a sorry picture of the primi- 
tive squalidness and misery of the inhabitants of the metrop- 
olis of Lincoln County. They were residents, however, still 
of a " wilderness country," whose physical condition was 
deeply tinged with the hues, and darkly shaded with the 
wildness of a wilderness home in every feature of life and 
character. 

1 F. Miss. p. 88. 



318 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

The religious aspect of the people was equally dark in its 
lights and shadows. " Eight different religious persuasions" 
filled up the outlines of the religious view. " Multitvides 
could neither read nor write — some had very gross and 
imperfect notions of a future state, and fancied that they 
should enjoy tlieir wives and children in another world ; 
and those horn and educated in these remote parts were so 
little acquainted with any religious worship, and had so long 
enjoyed their native ignorance, that they discovered hardly 
any inclination for rational and moral improvement." ^ 

The heathen, at that day, could not have commanded the 
yearnings of humanity, or roused the sympathy of Cln-istian 
organizations as now, or the woods of Pownalboro' would 
have rung with echoings from the cliff-tops of Old England 
and the sand hills of Plymouth — " Ye Christian heroes, go 
proclaim ! " 

A church missionary did at length penetrate this wild, 
and such was the result of his observation. The French 
and Dutch residents of Frankfort, the history of whose col- 
onization we have given, he tells us " he found in general a 
sober, honest, and industrious set of people." 

Mr. Bailey's experience here, in the varied and fatiguing 
incidents of missionary service, will give us a view of the 
nature of that service, and of the trials, fatigues, perils, and 
accompaniments of frontier life in the primitive state of this 
and the adjoining towns. He writes, — " I officiate at 
Georgetown every third Sunday ; " to do which "he had to 
travel by water eighteen miles," sometimes without any- 
thing to eat or drink, lost in the woods, where he was all 
night exposed in the open air to a most severe storm of 
wind, rain, thunder, and lightning. 

In the cast, especially in the towns re-peo{)led by the 
Scotch-Irish of the Dunbar emigration, greater thrift, more 

1 F. Miss. p. 89. 



ANTE-REYOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 319 

intelligence, and a better religious state seemed to obtain, 
the result of greater intelligence, more religious principle, 
decision of character, and habits of industry. 

bogg's adventure. 

Sheep, from the older settled agricultural regions of the 
Pemaquid, were now first introduced to the banks of St. 
George and Penobscot rivers. A Mr. Boggs, an amateur in 
this branch of husbandry, had gathered a flock from the 
pastures of Pemaquid on the deck of his sloop ; and while 
leisurely wafted over the waters of the intervening bay, 
bound for St. George's, as he sat on the windlass, became 
drowsy, and began to nod, when the father of the flock — a 
pugnacious ram — mistaking the captain's nods for a chal- 
lenge, drew up, and with a well-directed blow, butted the 
sleeping owner headlong from his seat. Boggs, tlioroughly 
roused by the concussion, sprung to his feet in a rage, and 
seizing the ram, precipitated him into the sea ; and in an 
instant, the flock, following their leader, were floating in the 
ocean around him ! ^ 

LONG REACH. 

" Long Reach," the newly incorporated second parish of 
Georgetown, had begun ^ the erection of a house of relig- 
ious worship, on the spot where, a century before, Robert 
Gutch made his plantation, and preached Christ. The 
banks of the Sagadahoc, at " Long Reach," were still embow- 
ered with the primeval forests of white oak, hoary pines and 
spruce, tall and large, sufficient to mast and spar " ships of 
four hundred ton," which made the landscape so strongly to 
resemble the "pastures of England" in the eyes of the 
ship's company of the Archangel a century and a lialf before. 



1 Eaton's Annals, p. 112. 
a M. H. Coll. vol. ii. p. 208. 



320 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

SOURCES OP THE NAVAL EMINENCE OP BATH. 

The great abundance of material adapted to the stnictiire 
of ships laid the foundation there for the present eminence 
of Bath, as a place for naval architecture. ^ Shipwrights, 
from Digby of London, the builder of the " Virginia," to 
William Phips, son of the gunsmith of Pemaquid, down to 
William S wanton, the Louisburg soldier, all appreciated in 
" Long Reach" the peculiar facilities for the building of 
ships, in the material of its forest oaks and pines. The 
place at once became a center of interest to artisan ship- 
wrights. Swanton " was a shipbuilder by trade, industrious 
and skillful," though Jonathan Philbrook had preceded him 
in the structure of smaller vessels. 

The " Earl of Bute," for a merchant of Scotland, was 
the first ship built within the limits of the city of Bath — 
the keel stretched — the frame set up — the structure com- 
pleted, w^hose mammoth hull was launched by Swanton the 
first year of his residence at Long Reach. The " Rising 
Sun," the " Moon," the " Black Prince," followed in nearly 
annual succession the " Earl of Bute," into the waters of 
Sagadahoc, from the yard of this gentleman, and out of the 
forests on the margin of Long Reach. 

It was undoubtedly the abounding primeval bordering 
forests of white oak — the remains of whose forests lie scat- 
tered along the ancient Ncquaseag and Sagadahoc rivers to 
this day — that laid tlie foundations of the pre-eminence of 
Bath, as a center of interest and success, and a conspicuous 
mart for naval arcliitccturc in the United States, if not in 
the world, which lately has distinguished it as the " Queen 
City of Ship-yards." Some dozen dwelling-houses now 
clustered on the margins of " Long Reach," in the midst of 
which the rudimentary structure of a village church began 
to lift its spire ; and Joseph Berry, Samuel Brown, Joshua 



1 M. H. Coll. vol. ii. p. 208. 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 321 

Pliilbrook, Benjamin Thompson, and Joseph White were the 
official parish personages ; ^ while Lieut. James Springer, 
the innholder, Isaiah Crooker, Lieut. John Lemont, Capt. 
Nathaniel Donnells, Moses Hodgkins, David Trufant, and 
Brient Robinson, at Winnegance, were the principal citizens. 

ABANDONMENT OF MILITARY DEFENSES. 

The garrison at George's was now dismissed, and the pub- 
lic property sold off at auction, except the fort, the guns, 
and the ammunition, which were left in charge of the late 
commander, Justice North ; and the Scottish settlers, who 
had till now remained in the pay of garrison service ^ — "a 
pious and exemplary people" — were dispersed through the 
region. 

The metropolitan character of Pownalboro' as a shire 
town had infused among the crude elements of society there, 
an official aristocracy, by the residence of county officers 
and gentlemen in the legal profession, which exercised a 
controlling influence over the poor native population of the 
town. The center of this aristocracy had its seat on the 
eastern bank of the Kennebec, opposite Richmond, within 
the western precincts of the town. 

A feature growing out of this circumstance, Mr. Bailey 
has disclosed, which finally became a terrible source of 
annoyance to this gentleman. The isolation of the place, 
and its great remoteness from the influence of communities 
of higher elevation in the social grade favored " great abuses 
of power." " Amid the poverty which so generally pre- 
vailed, few would dare to oppose in any way the wishes of 
men of wealth and influence, to Avhom, perhaps, many were 
indebted for supplies for their families, and who, having a 
part in the administration of the law, might harass and even 
ruin an obnoxious individual." 



1 M. H. Coll. vol. ii. pp. 211, 212. 

2 Eaton's Annals, pp. 120, 122. 

21 



322 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

" It was Mr. Bailey's misfortune to incur tlie ill will of 
some of these officials," says his narrator. Two in partic- 
ular <>ave to the self-denying, laborious missionary their spe- 
cial official displeasure, and " sought to ruin him and break 
up the church in that region ; " and it is a great pity the 
blot of their names on tlieir official position has not been 
left on tlie page of history to public execration, that the 
children of such unworthy sires, though founders of the 
county, miglit make some atonement to civilized society and 
Christian profession, by pointing tlie finger of scorn to the 
plague spot of their fame, as a warning to tlie dastardly- 
spirit of a self-complacent but too often mean and cowardly 
official egotism. Under the mask of a " Dissenter," one of 
these official dignitaries would visit the place of prayer, 
" where he would beliave with great indecency," contriving, 
" by a multitude of boyish tricks, to make the women smile," 
in contempt of the presence and worship of God ; and wlien 
sacred offerings were solicited, this official clown in the 
sanctuary " used often to put into the contribution box, 
soap, and, on one occasion, a pack of cards." ^ 

It is with just pride and commendation to the historian, 
that the character and conduct of the " common people " — 
the early yeomanry of the shire-town of Lincoln County — 
though poor, yet honest and true to tlie instincts of liuman- 
ity, can be sketched in perfect contrast, " as never disposed 
to follow the example of the gentlemen of Pownalboro'." 
On the contrary, the citizens at large " were more kind and 
generous" to the persecuted man of God, and more constant 
on his sacred ministrations, as it became more apparent it 
was the purpose of the official gentlemen " to drive away 
the mission from Pownalboro'." 

In the east, a precinct of the same town, a hamlet had 
grown up, washed by the waters of the bay formed by a 

1 F. Miss. p. 94. 



ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 323 

point of land designated by the aboriginal name of " "Wis- 
sa-casset," whose rock-bound margins shear the tides of the 
upper Sheepscot through narrows seaward. 

This precinct, embracing the point in the south-east ex- 
treme of Pownalboro', gave sixty-four names to tlie peti- 
tion for an act of incorporation ; and by the interest of its 
wealthy Boston proprietors, it became the depot of the com- 
merce and export trade of the valley, and " the sea-port 
of the Kennebeck ; " and at this date, Wiscasset was the 
only place of commercial importance ^ east of Portland, 
from which all foreign export, after passing down the Ken- 
nebec as far as Bath, went into the " Cross river " to Sheep- 
scot, and thence to Wiscasset for shipment. Thomas Rice, 
Esq., was the first representative of Pownalboro' to the Gen- 
eral Court ; and Rowland Cushing — " a very personable 
man " — practiced law as a resident at the Wiscasset village. 

NOBLEBORO'. 

Vaughn, the original occupant of the site, and the founder 
of the Damariscotta Mills village, had now deceased ; and 
Jonas Fitch, an officer under Gov. Winslow in the erection 
of Forts Halifax and Western, a Lieut, under Maj. Good- 
win, and a commandant of the rangers between Brunswick 
and St. George, had now taken up liis abode there on 
"Vaughn's interest, beginning at Winslow's garrison, and 
extending to a place called " Indian Hill," on the west side, 
a place not embraced within any township, having seven cot- 
tages, two double saw-mills, and one grist-mill. James 
Noble had succeeded to the rights of Vaughn, now deceased, 
and was the master spirit of the Vaughn settlement. He 
laid the foundations of a town which bears to tliis day the 
name of Nobleboro'. The site of Nobleboro', covering an 
eight miles square tract of land, was originally the property 

1 M. H. Coll. voLiv.p. 45. R. H. Gardiner, Esq. 



324 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

of John Brown of New Harbor. But Yaughn had entered 
and acquired possession under the Dunbar titles, and his 
right thereto he maintained at law, against the rights by- 
purchase of the aborigines, as decided by tlie Common 
Pleas and Superior Court at York, in an action of ejectment 
brought^ by Tappan. The titles by Dunbar grants were 
thus sustained. 

ABANDONMENT OF MILITARY DEFENSES. 

The process of dismantling the public works at 
1764. St. George's and Pemaquid, as public confidence in 
the prospects of continued peace became confirmed, 
was now completed. But the military organization of the 
arms-bearing public was continued under a body called the 
militia, of which the Regimental Muster was a chief feature. 
The first military display of citizen soldiery in a muster 
field was on " Limestone Hill," Thomaston, under command 
of Col. Cargill of Newcastle, who headed the regimental 
display in the simple costume of a " pea-jacket and com- 
marny cap." ^ 

Thomas Goldthwait succeeded General Preble in the com- 
mand of Port Pownal in the east, and Wm. Lithgow, Fort 
Halifax in the west. 

INCORPORATION OF TOPSHAM. 

The west shores of Merry Meeting Bay on its south-west- 
ern margin had become adorned with a hamlet, which had 
grown up from the site of the ancient Gyle's Plantations. 
Distinguished by a church, a development of the faith and 
zeal of the early Scotch-Irish immigration under the patron- 
age of Robert Temple, which centered here as 
1764. one of its principal points, this hamlet became the 

i Lincoln Commiss. Reports, p. 106. York Records, Judgment of 
Vaughn vs. Tappan, A i. 
2 Eaton's Annals, p. 130. 



ANTE-REYOLUTIOXARY PERIOD. 325 

nucleus of a new town, and was incorporated as Tops- 
ham. 

The scene of Levett's visit, the ancient Cape Ne-wagen, 
the Townsend of Gov. Dunbar's administration, was also 
incorporated as Boothbay ; and the ancient Jamestown of 
the Ducal State, New Harbor of Pemaquid, Walpole, and 
Harrington, of the Dunbar Settlements, were consohdated 
and incorporated into one town, by the name of Bristol, in 
commemoration of the English home of its earliest settlers, 
the ship-wrecked voyagers of the Angel Gabriel, which was 
stranded in the waters of Pemaquid Bay, a century and 
more than a generation before. 



CHAPTER YIL 



AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 

We have noticed the disturbances growing out of 
the question of property in the white pines of Maine, 1764. 
and the initial differences which had consequently 
arisen, as to the rights of royal prerogative and the privi- 
leges of the lumbermen of Maine. m 

A question as to the salary of the Royal Governor had 
also now begun to agitate the popular branch of the Legis- 
lature of the Colonial Government of Massachusetts Bay. 

To discover, punish, and crush out the rising spirit of dis- 
loyalty, and enforce the dependence of colonial existence 
on royal authority. Parliament resolved to force these differ- 
ences to an open issue. Acts of various taxation were im- 
mediately passed. These coercive measures only augmented 
the resistance, and opened more deeply the sources of irrec- 
oncilable alienation. We cannot discuss the moral aspects 
of the causes, or sketch the phases of the great controversy. 
Suffice it to say it was a struggle between power and privi- 
lege. We shall, therefore, simply trace out the incidents 
which developed themselves in natural order, and followed 
in the train of that struggle which finally sundered the 
nation, and moulded the trans-atlantic fragment into a new 
State, which has become distinguished as a great political 
fraternity in unity. 

The most insignificant causes led to these results. The 



328 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

great issue began in the forests of Maine, in the contests of 
her Lumbermen tvith the King's Surveyor, as to the right 
to cut, and the property in white pine trees. 

Bridger declared the prerogative of the royal sovereignty 
over these forest monarchs to be paramount to all other 
rights. Into these views he would coerce the reluctant lum- 
bermen. Power, precedent, and law were with him, but the 
necessities and instincts of humanity — the dictates of com- 
mon sense — the principles of equity, were against him ; and 
under the " application of swamp-law " in the wilds of 
Maine, the lumbermen were too hard for the King's officers. 

Here initiated, the controversy was transferred to the court 
circles of Massachusetts. The prestige of Royalty would 
have more efficiency within the metropolis and at the bar of 
the General Court, than in the lumber swamps of Maine. 
But Boston had already given unequivocal intimations that 
royal prerogative had no place in her sympathies when pop- 
ular rights were jeoparded. 

ADVENTURES OF COMMODORE KNOWLES. 

Commodore Knowles, with his men-of-war, rode at anchor 
in Nantasket Roads. His sailors deserted to tlie shore. The 
Commodore thought it very reasonable that Boston should 
make good the loss of men. Early in the morning of the 
17th of November, he sent his boats to town, and surprised 
and seized, not only as many seamen as could be found on 
board the vessels outward bound, but swept the wharves, 
taking ship carpenters, apprentices, and laboring landsmen. 

The whole city was moved with excitement. The lower 
classes " were beyond measure enraged," and rushed togeth- 
er, armed with sticks, clubs, and pitch-mops. An unfortu- 
nate and innocent lieutenant on shore, on other business, 
was seized. The intercessions of the Speaker of the House 
at length saved him. But the mob increased, and on learn- 
ing that several naval officers were guests of the Governor, 



AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 329 

it gathered about the Governor's house, demanding satisfac- 
tion. The house was surrounded. The court in front was 
filled with the excited and exasperated populace. The naval 
officers, with loaded carbines, took station at the head of the 
stairway, resolved to secure their liberty or lose their lives 
in the attempt. A deputy sheriff was sent into the midst 
of the crowd to secure the peace. This officer was seized, 
carried away in triumph, and set in the stocks. The pre- 
dicament of this officer of the law excited the mirth of the 
rabble, diverted their rage, and resulted in their quiet dis- 
persion at the dinner hour. But at night-fall many thousands 
re-assembled in King's street " below the town-house," where 
the General Court was in session. The council chamber 
was assailed with brick-bats and stones, and the glass broken 
in at the windows. The Governor and several gentlemen 
of the council harangued the multitude from the balcony, 
to no purpose, the seizure and restraint of the officers of the 
Royal Navy in town, being persistently determined upon. 

A boat reached the shore from a ship at anchor, which, 
being mistaken for a barge from a man-of-war, was seized, 
and dragged through the streets as if she were floating in 
her native element, to the Governor's house, where prepara- 
tion was made to burn her before his door. But the peril 
of setting fire to the town diverted the mob, and the boat 
was burned in a more private place, when it was ascertained 
that she belonged to a Scotch ship in the harbor. The 
militia was ordered out. But the drummers were interrupt- 
ed, and the citizen soldiery refused to appear. The Gover- 
nor repaired to the castle, and deserted the town. Com- 
modore Knowles was unyielding ; refused all accommodation 
till the naval officers on shore were released from restraint, 
which, if not done, bombardment was menaced. The ^ as- 
sembled representatives of the colony at length took the 

1 Hutchinson's Hist. Mass., vol. ii. pp. 386-9. 



330 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

matter in hand, and resolved to sustain public autlioritj at 
all hazards, and exert themselves by every means to secure 
for the people a redress of grievances, ordering Capt. Erskine, 
of his Majesty's ship Canterbury, and all other naval officers, 
to be forthwith enlarged. This action cooled the public re- 
sentment. A town-meeting was called, but the influence of 
legislative action prevailed there. 

lumbermen's controversy. 

The contest between the Royal Surveyor and the lum- 
bermen of Maine, now transferred to the General Court, 
roused Elisha Cooke, who with zeal and fortitude espoused 
the cause of the lumbermen, and resisted the assumptions 
of the Crown. The popular view of the question was sus- 
tained in the popular branch of the General Court ; and in 
this dispute were laid the foundations of a partisan strife 
between popular rights and royal prerogative, which ever aft- 
er developed a factious opposition to the royal measures on 
all questions of popular rights and expediency, pei-petually 
drawing in new points of difference from time to time, and 
widening the breach. Thus the struggle was changed to 
meet every new phase of royal requirement in the exaction 
of money, whether in the salaries of the royal governors, or 
in a revenue from the taxation of paper and tea ; and in 
each struggle the popular view made new acquisitions, and 
the popular will gained new advantages. Foremost in the 
conflict with royal prerogative, stood Elisha Cooke of Bos- 
ton, the guiding spirit of the popular cause in all its issues 
with monarchical power. But the right ^ of the lumbermen 
of Maine to property in their white pine trees was the enter- 
ing wedge to a struggle between power and privilege, which 
finally sundered all national ties, and ended in the grand 
and glorious issues of the American Revolution. 

1 Hutchinson's Hist. Mass., vol. ii. p. 201. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 331 

The struggles of the people with power in the mainte- 
nance of their rights had ditfiised wide-spread disaffection 
in the minds of the masses of Maine and Massachusetts ; 
and the popular sympathy was turned against the rights and 
prerogatives of the Crown and its supports ; and in this pop- 
ular dislike, the Episcopal Clmrch, as a creature of the 
State and a support of the Crown, was involved, and became 
obnoxious to the popular prejudices. Out of such differenr 
ces grew the popular commotion which for several years 
disturbed the entire social and civil structure, till the prin- 
ciple of self-government became fully developed and organ- 
ized in a new civil constitution. 

EARLY RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENTS. 

The colonization and settlement of Maine was rather a 
commercial and jjatriotic movement, than the result of a 
religious exodus. The first settlers within the " Ancient 
Dominions " were not refugees from religious intolerance, 
and of course were neither enthusiasts nor bigots, to one of 
which extremes, unbridled religious excitement ever leads. 

No traces of the blood-red hand of persecution have ever 
been found on the early colonial records of our State. 

The fact that the colonial enterprises for the settlement 
of Maine were the developments of a commercial, rather 
than a religious element, may account for this pleasing fea- 
ture in the earlier character of our plantations, contrasted 
with those sterner, darker, and more doubtful shades in the 
colonial history of Massachusetts. 

FREEDOM IN RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 

The Baptists were left free to live and die on our soil, fol- 
lowing the bent of their own inclinations, in seeking their 
salvation under the water or on the land, as best suited their 
tastes. No Quaker, writhing under the scourge of our 
magistracy, at the tail of the carts of Maine, either in or out 



332 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

of the Dukedom, was ever there forced to honor the dictates 
of his mind and the emotions of his heart as to the way they 
called him to worship God ; and no one burdened with any 
moral mania, no dupe of a religious hallucination, no 
witches were hung within the precincts of the ancient Sheep- 
scot, Sagadahoc, or Pemaquid. To these early and favorite 
points of human aggregation in the eastern wilds, the Devil, 
so busy in Plymouth among the Puritans, granted a happy 
exemption from the perils of witchcraft, priestcraft, and the 
ferocity of bigots. 

And yet these original plantations were not destitute of 
religious ordinances, nor did the early settlers depreciate the 
importance and value of religious institutions. 

MAINE AN EPISCOPAL ESTABLISHMENT. 

The great patron of all colonial adventures to the wilds 
of Maine, the founder of our name and state, Sir Ferdi- 
nando Gorges, was a member of the Episcopal Church. 

Moreover, it had been promulged from the Throne, that 
it was the " will and pleasure of his Sovereign," " that the 
Religion professed in the Church of England, and the eccle- 
siastical government used in the same, shall ever hereafter 
be professed, and with as much convenient speed as may be, 
settled and established in and throughout the said Prov- 
ince." ^ Such were the purposes of Government, as ex- 
pressed in the royal state paper authorizing the colonial acts 
of Gorges in founding the State of Maine. 

Under such instructions intimating the purposes of the 
royal mind. Sir Ferdinando shaped the basis of his new 
western State. In this respect, the colonial history of our 
State opens in contrast with that of the Massachusetts, 
whose jealous eye watched for, and whose all-grasping hand 
was ready to seize every opportunity, both by a liberal con- 

i Ecclesiastical Sketches. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 333 

structioii of her charter powers, and in stretching to the 
utmost bound her charter hmits. The plea of self-preserva- 
tion may have been the solace to the conscience of the 
authorities of the Bay Province, in grasping and grasping 
beyond her right, with a view to strangle the embryo 
" Church and State " with a strong Puritanical hand. 

Be this as it may, there can be no doubt that the hallowed 
rites of the Christian Church were first celebrated amidst 
the wilds of Maine before Massachusetts had an English 
existence, on the island of Monhegan, under the St. George's 
cross there set up by George Weymouth, or at the mouth 
of the River Kennebec, on almost an island in the aborig- 
inal province of Sabino, of the territory of Sebanoa, the 
lord of Sagadahoc, and according' to the services of the 
English Episcopal Church ; and that the Rev. Richard Sey- 
mour of the Church of England was the earliest regularly 
inducted minister of the Gospel whose voice broke upon the 
solitary wilds of New England, in echoes of holy prayer and 
praise ; and that his church at the mouth of the Sagadahoc, 
on the margins of Atkins Bay, was the earliest temple of 
worship whose heaven-lit shrine glowed with the 
light of a life to come amid the Pagan gloom of our 1607. 
■wild New England shores. Two centuries and a half 
have passed since an English town, with its fortress and 
church, stood at the mouth of the Sagadahoc, where Rich- 
ard Seymour, for a twelve-month, led the voice of prayer 
and praise in celebrating the worship of the living and true 
God. 

But the wilds of Maine already echoed to the sol- 
emn chants of the rites of the liturgy of the Latin 1646. 
tongue in the services of the Roman Chiirch, whose 
missionaries had penetrated its depths with a self-sacrifice 
and devotion wortby of a better cause. Gabriel Druillets, 
in the wilderness of the Kennebec, had planted the cross of 
the Church of Rome, and about it gathered the nucleus of 



83-4 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

a settlement, to which, as the heads of the religious estab 
lislimeiit, succeeded the two Bigots, ^ father and son, fol- 
lowed by the indefatigable Father Ralld, whose melancholy 
end has tinged the history of the Kennebec with sad memo- 
ries of blood and ferocity. Thus were the foundations of 
the town of Norridgewock laid in the early history of our 
State. 

CONGREGATIONALISM INTRODUCED. 

u 

A half century had elapsed when Robert Gutcli 
16G1. appeared some twelve miles above Popham's Town, 
at a place called " Long Reach," the site of the pres- 
ent city of Bath, where he lived, preached, and perished. 
Twenty years prior to his appearance as a public religious 
teacher in the clearings of the lower waters of the Kenne- 
bec, Robert Gutch was a resident of Salem in Massachusetts, 
and had united himself in membership with the first church 
there, where his name is enrolled in the annals of that 
ancient town. But Gutch was an original occupant of the 
soil at the Reach, and had become the owner thereof by 
purchase of the Sheepscot sagamore, Damarin, or Robin 
Hood. 

To the new clearings, settlements of the pioneer popula- 
tion, and fishers' hamlets on tlie islands and river-banks, 
which had at this period begun to open the primeval forests 
along the margins of the Sagadahoc, and adorn its banks 
with civilized life in the rude habitations of the early fron- 
tier-men, Robert Gutch came as a man of God, a preacher 
of righteousness. 

His own plantation on the Reach probably was a central 
point, — the nucleus of a considerable hamlet as the center 
of missionary labor, according to the ordinary and natural 
laws of human aggregation. A man in humble life, of 

I Charlevoix, p. 435. Williamson, vol. i. p. 369. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 335 

deep religious cast of mind, not endowed with literary at- 
tainments — a type of that class of men who subsequently 
have appeared as pioneers and foundation-builders in the 
establisiunent of Evangelical Congregationalism in Maine, 
— Robert Gutch, a Congregationalist of the ancient faith 
and order, moved by the wants of the newly-settled clear- 
mgs upon the Sagadahoc waters, probably circiilated from 
point to point as a missionary. Tradition has presumed 
him to have been a Presbyterian. But every indication is 
against such a presumption. The forms of faith and wor- 
ship among the early Congregationalists of New England 
were, to say the least, in strong affinity with Presbyterian- 
ism, if indeed those forms and that faith were not taken 
therefrom as the parent stock — of which Congregationalism, 
as a slip plucked from this root, has been, by unskilled 
hands, set out to grow up an unpruned shrub in another 
field of the same soil, whose fruit, deprived of the natural 
sap, becomes bitter or sweet, according to circumstances. 
The absence of ecclesiastical forms and sanctions, so per- 
sistently adhered to by Presbyterian judicatures, is pretty 
good presumptive proof that Robert Gutch was a simple 
Congregationalist — an unlettered, pious man, whose gifts 
and graces commended him to the people as a religious 
teacher. 

THE SITE OF ROBERT GUTCH's CHURCH. 

Near the head of Arrowsic Island, opposite the city of 
Bath, a house of worship was traceable in its decaying ruins 
for many years, and had been seen while standing by ancient 
men who knew the place where it stood after the house 
itself had been destroyed, and which was reputed to be one 
of Mr. Gutch's meeting-houses. 

Mr. Gutch's abode on the Reach was, without doubt, the 
nucleus of a town midway between the Arrowsic towns on 
the south and east, and the Merry Meeting plantations on 



336 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

tlie north and west. Here, with pious zeal and fortitude, 
as the first missionary herald of the Cross in Maine for some 
years, Mr. Gutch preached the unsearchable riches of the 
love of Jesus to the early adventurous dwellers of this 
region, who, with their lives in their hands, stoutly con- 
tested with savage wilds and tempestuous seas the resources 
of the deep, as well as the dominion of the untamed and 
virgin soil. 

DEATH OF GUTCH. 

As he thus circulated from hamlet to hamlet, he was cut 
off by being drowned, precisely when or where is not stated, 
but probably while crossing to or from some of his preach- 
ing stations. That he was a preacher of righteousness, and 
was drowned at an early period, and that the peninsula of 
Long Reach, the site of the city of Bath, was his home and 
possession, is the principal record of his life, labors, end, 
and history we have. 

The hamlet of Robert Gutch, at Long Reach, on the Sag- 
adahoc, it would seem escaped in the sacking of the Arrow- 
sic towns in the war of King Philip. As he was no " truck- 
master" — no military chieftain — no man conspicuous ex- 
cept as a servant of the most high God, and therefore in no 
way obnoxious to savage resentment, he probably remained 
unmolested. His life and character may have been a shield, 
not only to himself and household, but to the villagers of 
his hamlet on the Reach ; for being known only as a man 
of God, he was brought within a circle of well-known sav- 
age veneration, Penhallow having asserted " that it was 
remarkably observable that among all the settlements and 
towns of figure and distinction, not one of them has been 
utterly destroyed wherever a church was gathered." 

Robert Gutch was therefore one of the earliest 
1669. missionaries, and the site of the city of Bath one of 
the earliest stations in Maine. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 337 

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS EXTINGUISHED. 

Subsequent to the decease of Mr. Gutch, the destruction 
and depopulation as a consequence of savage warfare, broke 
up all the organizations of society. The institutions of 
education and religion were utterly neglected, and the ordi- 
nances of religion were not administered, and the altars 
thereof were broken down ; " and in those times there was 
no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, 
but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants ; and for 
a long time the whole land lay without a teaching priest 
and without the law." 

EARLY ARRANGEMENTS FOR RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION BY 
THE RETURNING SETTLERS. 

On the return of the fugitive inhabitants to re-peo- 
ple the wastes of Philip's war, provision for religious 1683. 
instruction and the administration of its holy ordi- 
nances entered into the original plans and organizations of 
those who went in to re-possess the land and repair its 
breaches. 

CONGREGATIONAL PROCLIVITIES OP THE RETURNING SHEEPSCOT 

PLANTERS. 

• Within the Dukedom, those who organized to return and 
revive the Sheepscot plantation, on " Mason and Jewett's 
Neck," the ancient town of New Dartmouth, at their original 
meeting on Fort Hill in Boston, previous to embarkation, 
ordained " that there shall be speshall and speedy order 
taken that there may bee a convenient place as a tract of 
land laid out for a Ministree, with a convenient place to 
sett a meeting house to ye best advantage for ye towne ; and 
also, that we may have a minister of our own ifree choyce, 
and such a man as ye mager parte of ye towne shall Like 
and Approve of ffor that end." 

22 



838 AN'CIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

EPISCOPAL SERVICE AT PEMAQUID. 

At Jamestown, in the Pemaquid precinct of the Dukedom, 
it was ordained in council that — "for the" forwarding of 
piety it is requisite that a person be appointed by the com- 
missioners to read prayers and the holy scriptures." Thus 
was early provision made for religious instruction, at both 
capitals of the Dukedom, Congregational forms prevailing 
at New Dartmouth ( now Newcastle) on the Sheepscot, and 
Episcopal forms prevailing at Jamestown, the capital at 
Pemaquid. ^ The two forms were in accordance with the 
views and polity of the two settlements. At New Dart- 
mouth, Massachusetts emigrants re-occupied the wastes of 
Sheepscot, and the principle of the majority, the voice of 
freemen, gave law to the settlement ; while at Jamestown 
military rule overrode all rights and voice of the people, 
becoming so oppressive at length as to force complaint and 
petitions for redress to the Governor at New York, from the 
inhabitants, — Pemaquid, subsequently to Philip's w^ar, hav- 
ing been largely re-settled from New York, ^ the residence 
and seat of authority of the ducal governor. 

SAVAGE HOSTILITIES DISASTROUS TO RELIGION. 

But the ruthless and bloody hand of war soon extin- 
guished these kindlings of religious interest. The tread of 
war, the image of death, the besom of destruction, soon 
obliterated every foot-print of religion, and sw^ept away every 
vestige. The voice of prayer and praise was heard only in 
camp, surrounded with soldiery and trappings of war ; and 
as tlie incense of Mars, it went up as an official offering 
from the lips of those who as chaplains were attached to 
expeditions for the chastisement and subjection of the sav- 
age foe. 

Apart from the army arrangements for religious instruc- 



1 Pemaquid Papers, pp. 51, 70, 80. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 33^ 

tion, tlie voice of the man of God had ceased, and the peo- 
ple were without a teaching priest. 

REJECTION OP BAXTER. 

Mr. Baxter, a chaplain and missionary under ap- 
pointment to the Kennebec Indians, was set apart by 1717. 
Gov. Dummer, and introduced to them as their relig- 
ious teacher of tlie Protestant faith, whose services the sav- 
ages were reluctant to receive, and finally rejected, saying 
to the Governor, as he exhibited the Bible as the symbol of 
Protestant faith and authority, and Mr. Baxter as its ex- 
pounder, in the treaty conference,—" all people have a love 
for their ministers, and it would be strange if we did not 
love them that come from God. God has given us teaching 
already ; and if we should go from that, we should displease 
God. We are not capable to make any judgment about 
religion." 

BENJAMIN GIBSON. 

Such also was Benjamin Gibson at St. George's, 
■who perished in the expedition of Col. Westbrook up 1723. 
Penobscot River, in the bitter cold of a February 
campaign, in which was destroyed the cliief village of the 
Penobscot tribe, together with their church. 

PRESBYTERIANISM INTRODUCED. 

Rev, Robert Rutherford was an Irishman and a 
Presbyterian, tlie religious teacher of the Dunbar 1729. 
emigration. Under the patronage of the Royal Gov- 
ernor of Sagadahoc, he was introduced to Bristol, and sta- 
tioned at Fort Frederick of Pemaquid. It is quite probable 
he officiated at first as a chaplain to Dunbar, and then 
preached as a missionary. The relations between Dunbar 
and this divine were of the most intimate and confiding char- 
acter. Upon leaving his gubernatorial seat in Maine, Gov. 



340 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

Dunbar committed his property in charge and possession to 
Rev. Mr. Rutherford, his spiritual guide. Rutherford is 
represented to have been a man of amiable and excellent 

disposition. This early herald of the Cross preached 
1743. in Bristol, Brunswick, and Georgetown. ^ Dunbar 

died, and his widow married Capt. Henderson of St. 
George. Rutherford followed to St. George, where he died 
and was buried near the tomb of the late Gen. Knox of 
Thomaston, where his ashes still repose. 

DUNBAR'S RELIGIOUS PROCLIVITIES. 

It would appear, from the interest of Col. Dunbar in Mr. 
Rutherford, that his own religious sympathies were with the 
Presbyterian sentiments ; whose forms of faith and church 
order he undoubtedly did much to introduce and establish 
within the boundaries of the Ancient Dominions of Maine, 
by bringing into the country emigrants of this belief to 
re-people and fill up its war-wasted towns and hamlets. 
Hence the foundations were laid for religious organizations 
of this ancient establishment throughout the region ; the 
blessed fruits of whose faith and virtue appear to this day 
in the general purity of doctrine, zeal, and piety which char- 
acterize the orthodox communities of this whole region, 
whose churches are scions from this ancient stock, and 
whose root and fatness still impart freshness, verdure, and 
fruitfulness. 

Thus it will be seen that on the re-settlement of the 
Ancient Dominions of Maine, under that efficient office*' ot 
the Crown, Dunbar, a new race was introduced, and new 

foundations for the administration of religiotis ordi 
1730. nances were laid ; and from this period and frorr 

these causes we may date the beginnings of perma 
nency and prosperity in religious influence here. 

1 Mar. 19, 1743. Voted to raise £20 for Mr. Rutherford. MSS. reo 
ords, ch. in Georgetown, M. L. Hill, Esq. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. ' 341 

EELIGIOUS INFLUENCE OF THE DUNBAR EMIGRATION. 

The Scotch-Irish emigrants of Dunbar and his coadjutors 
brought with them their peculiar religious views, sympa- 
thies, and proclivities ; and through them the Church of 
Scotland sent out her roots, and Presbyterianism started up 
on every side, here and there, in the community, upon 
which, as the parent stock, most of the Evangelical Congre- 
gational churches of this region were afterward grafted ; 
and to the devoted and intelligent zeal and piety of a learned 
and faithful ministry here introduced by the Church of Scot- 
land, and set to watch, train, and rear her distant sons and 
daughters in their wild New England homes, the present 
generation is greatly indebted for a pure faith and precious 
gospel ordinances, administered according to the ancient 
covenant engagements of the church of Christ. 

RELIGIOUS HABITS OF PRESBYTERIANS. 

The religious character and proclivities of the peo- 
ple, in the Dunbar settlements, soon developed a 1741. 
state of deep religious interest. Destitute of the 
stated means of grace, " the people ^ met together every 
Sabbath, and frequently on other days, for the purpose of 
worshipping God in a public manner, by prayer, singing of 
Psalms, and reading instructive books ; " and " a happy 
revival of religion " followed. Such was the state of public 
feeling and interest in religion when Mrs. Porterfield, escap- 
ing from shipwreck, found an asylum among the inhabitants 
of Townsend, which facts happily illustrate the character of 
the newly-planted colonists, for religion and piety, within 
the Dunbar towns. 

THOMAS PIERPONT. 

Thomas Pierpont preached at St. George's as chaplain of 
1 Mrs. Porterfield's Narrative, "White's New England, p. 20f). 



342 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

1731. the garrison there, receiving his compensation 

Aug. 10. from the public treasury. The rehgious views 
and standing of this gentleman are unknown ; 
but he unquestionably was one of the earliest ministers of 
Thomaston. 

Rev. Robert Dunlap, a native of the county of 
1737. Antrim, Irelaiid, and a graduate of Edinboro' Uni- 
versity, embarking with a numerous emigration for 
America, escaping the perils of shipwreck in the long-boat, 
when ninety-six of his companions were engulfed, took up 
his residence at Nobleboro'. ^ How long he remained at 
this then thriving village is not known. He repaired 
1747. to Boothbay, and finally settled at Brunswick. Rob- 
ert Dunlap was a Presbyterian of the Scotch-Irish 
faith, and undoubtedly an acquisition from the Dunbar emi- 
gration. 

EARLY CHURCH ORGANIZATION IN GEORGETOWN. 

Seven years before, the organization of a church had been 
made in the revived and re-peopled Arrowsic plantations, 
now incorporated as Georgetown. This church ^ was organ- 
ized in the faith and order of the gospel as held by Presby- 
terians, with a membership of no less than thirty males. 
But a considerable portion of the early settlers were Con- 
gregationalists, and much attached to its forms of church 
organization. " Hence dissension early arose." 

McLANATHAN. 

William McLanathan was employed to preach ; and 
1784. for ten years he there performed ministerial labor. 

His ecclesiastical relationship is not clearly defined. 
1745. The probability is that at first he was Presbyterian, 

and when dismissed, he acquired Episcopal procliv- 

1 MSS. from John McKeen, Esq. 

S Greenleaf 's Ecclesiastical Sketches, pp. 73, 75. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 343 

ities, and officiated at the several points on the Sagadahoc 
and Kennebec waters, in the service of the Church Mission- 
ary Society, as a minister of the Episcopal Church. He 
seems to have been a man of popular address and attractive 
talents, but selfish and unscrupulous in character, as well 
as in the means adopted to accomplish his designs and 
advance his interests. At Georgetown there early existed 
the nucleus of an Episcopal church and society, which may 
indeed have been only the product of the change of eccle- 
siastical relationship in the officiating clergyman, and which 
never appears to have had a full development in that neigh- 
borhood. 

REVIVAL OP EPISCOPACY ON THE KENNEBEC. 

The Kennebec river runs in a very direct course by the 
present city of Bath, which feature gave the peculiar and 
appropriate name of " Long Reach " to this portion of the 
Sagadahoc and its margins on the west bank. " At some 
distance below the city, a sudden turn of the river at right 
angles, which immediately resumes its previous southerly 
course, leaves the bank a rounded headland, of bold shores 
and conspicuous position. It was at this point an Episcopal 
church was erected." ^ The Lithgow family reared near 
the church a spacious and elegant mansion. The sacred 
edifice stood a few rods from the river, at a distance from 
any settlement. Its position undoubtedly was suggested by 
the fact that the exigencies of the times and the customs of 
the inhabitants made the river the great highway of travel, 
and the light canoe the vehicle of locomotion. 

The church is described as ^having been a low building, 
"with a double floor, without traces of pews — simple, with- 
out ostentation in architectural finish. The building finally 
was appropriated to housing cattle, and the churchyard, con- 

l Frontier Miss. p. 281. 



344 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

verted into a barnyard, was turned up by the plowshare. 

PARAMOUNT RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE OP THE DUNBAR TOWNS. 

But the great center of religious interest and influence 
appears to have opened in one of the communities of Col. 
Dunbar, in the newly laid-out settlement of Townsend — a 
modern appellation for the ancient Cape Newagen — since 
called Boothbay. 

In the piety of its inhabitants recently introduced, of 
Scotch-Irish descent and Presbyterian church relationship, 
the foundations were laid for a wide-spread and deeply mov- 
ing religious power, through the whole region. 

PURITY AND POWER OF SCOTCH-PRESBYTERIAN PIETY. 

The light and power of their religious zeal and holy liv- 
ing kindled on all sides the latent sparks of piety which lay 
smoldering and smothered beneath the ruins and decay of 
more than a generation wasted and broken by savage war. 
Imbued with the spirit of the gospel, as breathed out in that 
summary of faith embodied in the Westminster Assembly's 
Catechism, these colonists became as lights in our newly 
settled wilds, whose radiance illumined the darkness of the 
whole region, and quickened, in a heterogeneous and pio- 
neer population, a very general desire to enjoy the gospel 
ordinances, which developed shortly the most grand and 
precious results. These results, traced in connection with 
their causes, merit a conspicuous place on the page of his- 
tory, and a detailed narration in the annals of the past, as 
a guide to the future explorer into the mysteries of religious 
power. 

This is our only apology for making copious selections 
from the manuscript records of the first church in Boothbay, 
whose date is anterior to the incorporation of 
1763. that town, the church being the first body pohtic 
Dec. 22. there organized according to Presbyterian princi- 
ples. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 345 

HISTORY OF PRESBYTERIANISM THERE. 

Rutherford and Dunlap ^ had each labored prior to this 
date in Boothbay. " The inhabitants of the ancient Cape 
Newagen, long harassed and distressed by the natural diffi- 
culties of settling a new country, and particularly by the 
frequent wars with the savages," — by whom the settlement 
was repeatedly broken iip, and the whole place laid waste — 
had, at this date, hardly gathered strength enough to settle 
the gospel among them. Long had the land languished 
under " the heavy affliction of silent Sabbaths." Various 
itinerant preachers had occasionally afforded the inhabitants 
the privilege of hearing the word there and in other places ; 
and from time to time, application had by them and by set- 
tlers in other places, been " made to the Rev. Presbytery of 
Boston for supplies." 

JOHN MURRAY INTRODUCED. 

The neglect of the Presbytery to relieve their religious 
necessities left the people in a state of despondency. But, 
as the darkness of religious destitution gatliered over these 
revived plantations in defiance of their efforts to roll back 
the cloud, a star of hope dawned in " the arrival of Mr. 
John Murray, a probationer from Ireland, drawn hither by 
repeated invitations ^ from one of the principal settlers " of 
Townsend. The Rev. Jonathan Adams, a native of the 
place and present incumbent of the ancient pulpit where the 
Rev. John Murray officiated, and a lineal descendant of this 
distinguished servant of the most high Ood, has informed 
the author that the name of the " principal settler," whose 
invitations at this early date drew Mr. Murray, the Irish 
probationer, to Boothbay, was " Andrew Reed," also an emi- 



1 MSS. records, Sess. Book, p. 8. 

2 Sess. records, MSS. p. 8. 



346 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

grant from Ireland, and a native of the same town there 
with Murray, whose uncle he was by marriage. 

Murray's favor with the people. 

The ministrations of the young Irish probationer, after 
preaching some time, were found generally acceptable. At 
Mr. Beatli's house, the people of the place gathered, " where 
they unanimously voted to give Mr. Murray an invitation to 
be the stated pastor of the town." 

As an encouragement for him to remain among them, 
ninety pounds per annum were subscribed at once ; and in 
addition thereto, the settlers engaged to give him two hund- 
red acres of land, to build him a house, " to clear and labor 
his said lot," provide, cut, and haul his firewood annually. 
A subscription was started to secure these promises ; and in 
the language of the record, — " the Lord spirited up the 
inhabitants, so that it was quickly filled up." 

promise extorted. 

Mr. Murray proposing to return again to Ireland, and 
feeling disinclined to remain in the newly-settled Townsend 
at Boothbay, left in February. Determined to " push his 
call to a final result," the inhabitants chose and sent a com- 
mittee to Boston to secure the influence of the ministry 
there in their behalf. All was found to be unavailing. 
But, after meeting all his objections with perseverance and 
an importunity that always conquers, a promise was finally 
extorted from the candidate, " that, if he returned to settle 
in America, should the application be renewed, Townsend 
should be the place of his settlement." Elated with this 
promise of success, the commissioners returned to the east- 
ward, and Murray pursued his journey westward. 

Murray's departure. 
Importuned at New York and Philadelphia, he was divert- 



AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 34T 

ed from his purpose of an immediate return to Ireland hj a 
call to the pastoral charge of a church in the latter city, 
which circumstances seemed to require him to consider. 
He thereupon informed his friends in Boothbay ; and though 
they replied by vigorous and repeated renewals of their suit, 
" it would seem their wishes never reached his ear." He 
was ordained by Presbytery over the church in Philadelphia. 

ACTION OP THE PEOPLE OF BOOTHBAY. 

On learning this event, the inhabitants of Boothbay, cling- 
ing to the promise made to their commissioners, resolved to 
prosecute their cause in the judii;ature of the Presbyterian 
Church ; and solicited Capt. Andrew Reed to communicate 
with Mr. Murray on their purposes in this particular, who 
closes the correspondence in behalf of the people by saying, 
" We are firmly resolved to insist upon your promise to the 
uttermost, as we believe they have got you settled there 
[in Philadelphia] by fraud and treachery — by stopping 
both your letters and ours." We here have a clew to this 
singular position of matters in relation to these parties. 

SUCCESSFUL PROSECUTION OF THEIR CLAIMS. 

The appeal of the people to the Presbytery of Philadel- 
phia passed unheeded. Not discouraged, the prosecutors 
carried up their cause before the Synod of New York and 
Philadelphia, by petition of the town, setting forth a state- 
ment of facts, supported by documentary evidence, not 
doubting their success " if once tliey came before so con- 
scientious a court as the Synod." Andrew Reed was at the 
head of the prosecuting commission. In conclusion, the 
papers were all returned by the same hands by which they 
were sent on ; and with them the minutes of Presbytery, 

Note. — Rev. John Murray of Boothbay used to be called " Damnation 
Murray," in distinction from the Universalist Rev. John Murray of Cape 
Ann, who was known aa " Salvation Murray." — J. W. Thornton of Boston. 



348 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

whereby Mr. Murray " was liberated in manner and form as 
full as was desired." 

Murray's return to boothbay — public proceedings. 

Three months nearly elapsed ere Mr. Murray reached 
Boothbay, where he arrived to the great joy of the inhabi- 
tants, though in a state of great physical prostration. The 
inhabitants were gathered by the town officers under the 
frame of their newly-erected meeting-house. Fully attend- 
ed, the meeting was opened with prayer. Mr. Murray pro- 
ceeded to narrate to the assembled town all their transac- 
tions with him from first to last. The town clerk read all 
the votes and papers, which being approved, Mr. Murray 
read to the assembled town his dismission — " opened at 
large the history of his education and degrees at the univer- 
sity ; his license to preach, and certain difficulties which 
had arisen between him and some ministers in Ireland, 
respecting a certificate, which he expressed great sorrow for 
attempting to support, after having discovered the error of 
its authors — (begging pardon of God and man) — together 
with the pretended censures which had appeared in the pub- 
lic prints, and were attempted to be fixed on him." Mr. 
Murray also read the minutes of the Presbyteries of New 
York and Pliiladelphia, relating to himself — the correspond- 
ence &c. relating to the matter ; and when all was con- 
cluded, — "he called the meeting to testify, by the usual 
sign, if any were dissatisfied with anything Avritten or said, 
or if any abatement of their desires for his immediate settle- 
ment had been occasioned ? " A unanimous answer in the 
negative relieved his solicitude. He then demanded, as a 
final test, if there " was any who did not then expressly renew 
the call to him to settle in the pastoral office, or who did not 
promise all that subjection to his ministrations in every pas- 
toral duty which is due to ministers of the gospel, and to 
every ordinance of the gospel, it should be signified." To 



AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 349 

all which the answers were in the negative, unanimously. 
Whereupon Mr. Murray declared his cheerful acceptance of 
the call, gave a short exliortation, and closed tlie scene with 
prayer. The following Sabbath he entered on his duties as 
pastor of this newly-organized people of his charge, in the 
services of a public dedication of their newly-erected house 
of worsliip, while it was still very likely in a primitive and 
naked condition. 

ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. 

To exhibit more fully the religious views and cus- 
toms prevaiUng at this remote period, and which the 1766. 
Presbyterian Church, in its official administration of 
the duties of the pastoral relation among a people, required 
of its clergy, we shall extract a further detailed account of 
forms, facts, and circumstances, so fully recorded under the 
direction of the body of the Session, usually consisting of 
the pastor, elders, and deacons, of which body the pastor, 
ex officio, is moderator, chairman, or president. 

PRINCIPLES OF PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE CHURCH ORQAN- 
IZATION. 

Mr. Murray proceeded to organize a church among this 
newly-colonized people, on the ground " that their relation 
to God as a church, for the full enjoyment of the word and 
ordinances of the gospel, is the greatest beauty and glory of 
a people." In the solemn transaction the whole town en- 
gaged, the inhabitants thereof being obliged to acknowledge 
the great goodness of God in a very wonderful series of 
mercies, deliverances, and gifts of bounty from their first 
naked settlement. That God may be glorified, Christ's visi- 
ble kingdom enlarged, and their own and the souls of their 
posterity be daily built up in the knowledge and love of God, 
this people "adventured to set their public hand to the 
Lord's work." Such were the purposes and motives of this 



350 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

people as set forth in the public records, by which, add they, 
" we do, therefore, pursuant to a legal vote of this town, in 
town meeting assembled, this day unite and incorporate our- 
selves and all who shall from time to time join with us, into 
an organized branch of the visible church," upon certain 
fundamental articles, viz. " that the town of Boothbay shall 
be deemed to be under the ecclesiastical constitution of the 
Presbyterians as to worship, ordinances, discipline, and gov- 
ernment ; that the Westminster Confession of Faith, Longer 
and Shorter Catechism," be their public confession of faith ; 
that pastors, ruling elders, and deacons be always used in 
said church ; that no person shall be received to fellowship 
with this church in any sealing ordinance, as baptism for 
himself and infant children, or Lord's Supper, whose relig- 
ion, faith, or practice is found not conformed to the received 
standard, i. e. who are not in judgment of rational Christian 
charity, visible Christians. 

PECULIAR FORMS OF PRESBYTERIANS. 

It will be a novelty at least, if it do not show a wide and 
perilous departure from ancient usage in the practice of our 
churches at this day, — in which they are shorn of much of 
their glory and power, on account of which " Zion lan- 
guishes, becavise few come to her solemn feasts," — to nar- 
rate the formal rites of induction into office, as performed 
in this church, of its minor officers. 

The result of the election and examination of the indi- 
viduals to be set apart to these offices in the churcli, was 
publicly declared, when it was unanimously agreed that 
ordination be solemnly attended in the meeting-house in the 
forenoon. 

ORDINATION OF ELDERS. 

A bench was set in the broad alley of the house, where the 
officers took their seats during the preparatory services. 



AMERICAN REYOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 351 

Then the pastor, calling on the congregation to 1767. 
look on the persons set before them, ex})laiiied the Sept. 20. 
duties, authority, and institution of the offices 
of ruling elders and deacons — exhibited the warrant and 
necessity for such officers in every church of Christ. Their 
choice and election by the church, and " their acceptance of 
the call" were recited, together with the fact that they had 
been publicly propounded before the congregation three sev- 
eral Sabbaths, and that they had satisfactorily sustained 
examination, privately by the pastor, and then publicly 
before the church, as to knowledge, their creed, experience, 
and practice in religion. Tlie pastor " then solemnly ad- 
jured all those present, as before the living God, to signify, 
by holding up the hand, if they knew anything against their 
being set apart to these offices." No objection being made, 
the church was called on to renew their confidence in and 
their call to these persons by the same token ; which being 
unanimously and publicly given, " the officers elect were 
called to stand forth," and publicly interrogated as to their 
experimental acquaintance with the way of salvation throvigh 
free grace in Christ Jesus, their resolutions of Christian 
practice, and their adhesion to the Westminster Confession 
of Faith, and as to the essential articles of religion and dis- 
cipline, hi all these particulars, " having made such pro- 
fessions as were fully satisfactory," signified their acceptance 
of the call given them by the church, and indicated their 
purposes in such acceptance, " they solemnly covenanted 
and with uplifted hands did publicly swear to Almighty 
God the faithful and constant performance of the duties of 
their several offices, when by prayer ( with fasting ) they 
were solemnly set apart, ordained, and dedicated to their 
respective offices." " The minister, coming down from the 
pulpit, gave to each of them the right hand of fellowship, 
with the express form of their admission to their respective 
powers and trusts." This being done, " members appointed 



352 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

as commissioners for the church," coming up, " did, by giv 
ing the right hand, receive them as officers of the church, 
and stipulate to them as such, in the cliurch's name, all 
due subjection, assistance, and encouragement in the Lord." 
The minister then returned to the pulpit, " and publicly 
recognized them by name, on his own and the church's 
behalf, as duly vested with the powers of their respective 
offices." A solemn charge then followed, a psalm was sung, 
and the great transaction was closed. 

Thus constituted and endowed as a church estate, the 
people of this recently colonized and instituted town, char- 
acterized in all their acts by the stern virtues of their noble 
ancestry, animated with the spirit of Wickliff and Knox in 
the decided principles of a bold and earnest piety, publicly 
proclaimed their estimate of the value of the gospel, and 
endeavored to forestall covenanted mercies to the enjoyment 
of themselves and their posterity, in that they would seek 
the Lord after " due order." 

William Moore, Robert Murray, ^ John Beath, Nehemiah 
Harrendon, were thus invested as Ruling Elders ; and Israel 
Davis, Samuel Adams, and Ephraim McFarland as Deacons. 

RELIGION A BUSINESS, 

The church, thus perfected in its organization, began, like 
" the leaven hid in three measures of meal," to develop its 
power in the community where it was constituted, and work 
out those results for which its Great Head had ordained it 
on earth, by bringing to bear on the popular mind and heart 
those restraining, reformatory, and saving influences which 
affect human welfare here and hereafter. 

Monthly meetings of the Session for prayer, fasting, and 
mutual consultation and conference were instituted, each 
member of the Session making it " his care to know the 

1 Father of Rev. John Murray. — Rev. Jonathan Adams. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 353 

general state of the flock— to visit them in their families by 
two and two, and examine into their religious state every 
quarter." In the execution of this design, the held was 
divided into districts, and an elder and a deacon were as- 
signed to the charge of each district. Tlie western, embrac 
ing Oven's Mouth, Menikuk, Damariscove, Cape Newagen, 
and the other islands, was given in charge to Harrendon 
and Davis. From the pond and meeting-house to Cross 
River, Murray and Adams were placed in charge, which 
embraced the northern district. From the bounds of the 
settlement called " Free Town," ( now Edgecomb ) and 
rieasant Cove to Liniken's Neck, was made the eastern dis- 
trict, which was assigned to Beath and McFarland. 

In this methodical manner, in accordance with the spirit 
of that organization of ecclesiastical polity termed Presby- 
terianism, the church by it animated sought in " due order" 
to cultivate the vineyard which the Lord had given her to 

THE FIELD OF LABOR. 

Mr. Murray's private journal will give an idea of the 

nature of his field of labor, and of the religious condition 

of the people prior to the organization of the church ; while 

a further extract from the manuscript records of the Session 

Book will show his abundant labors and fidelity as a pastor. 

A course of pastoral visitation was immediately instituted,, 

in which " all the inhabitants at their houses were visited, 

catechised, and conversed with, every one separately, old 

and young, concerning the state of their souls and the great 

work of salvation it was necessary all should experience in 

order to their final welfare. The remarks of each day's 

visit, the names of all the persons in each family, with all 

the observations made of the state in which he found them, 

were entered on a book, and every visit concluded with 

prayer." 

2o 



854 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

STATE OF Murray's mind. 

After one of these visits, Mr. Murray writes thus, — 
" Alas ! alas ! What shall 1 say ? I iiow fear the success of 
my ministry more than ever. Oh, my God, enable me to be 
found faithful. Make thy strength perfect in my great weak- 
ness. Oh, pour out thy Spirit on these poor families that they 
may not forget the promises this day made in thy sight — 
that thy worship shall be daily morning and evening main- 
tained in their houses, and they shall never rest until they 
have received thy Christ into all their hearts. ' A dismal 
prospect truly ! All prayerless — all ignorant of God and of 
themselves, — all determined to cherish their hopes, though 
I have found but two who can rationally profess any expe- 
rience of the power of religion, — some of the English 
Church, some separatists — most of them nothing at all. 
Arise, Lord, or this people perish ! show thy salvation 
to them, revive thine own work, or we are an undone 
people ! " 

Again he writes : " Now this week's visits are finished, 
what have I done ? Have I been faithful ? 0, if so in any 
measure, praise to my rock — my strength ! All have prom- 
ised to be in earnest about salvation. Lord, I commit the 
whole to thee. Breathe on my poor feeble attempts — grant 
the success — 'tis all of thee! come among this blind, 
hardened, perishing people ! Show them thy salvation. 
Lord, arise, arise and save ! Open, great God, the ear and 
heart of this people. what triumphs would grace gain if 
such sinners were brought home ! Every house prayerless 
save one ! Every heart as adamant. Lord, for a life-giv- 
ing word ! " 

But the scene began gradually to assume a more hopeful 
aspect to the eye of this man of God, as he made his weekly 
circuit of the field in search of sheaves. 

1 Greenleaf's Eccles. Sketches, p. 134. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 355 

RELIGIOUS INTEREST AWAKENING. 

" Some comfort to-day, blessed be God. Three prayerful 
families — four professors — two communicants. But false 
hopes have slain their thousands ! Woful is the security of 
fig-leaves ! Very hard and painful work to bring any to con- 
viction of duty, sin, or danger. Prayerless, and yet self- 
condemned ! Christless, confessedly, and yet easy and se- 
cure I Ignorant, and pleading that as a righteousness ! I 
have had sad views of ignorance and carelessness in every 
house. Youth wrapt in slumber, and old age by practice 
saying, Sleep on ! Conscience in a corner inaccessible. 
What shall I say ? inveterate habits of vice, and no remorse ! 
It gives me some comfort that I have one prayerful family 
and a humble professor at the head of it ; and in another, 
one struck off from false hope and under conviction. Lord, 
fasten it, and increase the number ! ^ Amen ! Amen ! " 
Such were Mr. Murray's observations on the field of his 
labor, and such was the state of his mind in view thereof. 

RELIGIOUS INTEREST DEEPENING. 

Weekly prayer meetings were established from house to 
house ; and every family in each division of the town so 
classed as that every person was catechised once in three 
months, and the catechism completed with each class once a 
year. ^ The legitimate fruits of such a dissemination of 
gospel truth soon appeared. The field began to whiten for 
the harvest ; and the laborers, as they returned rejoicing 
with sheaves, said, — " We have abundant reason to say that 
this exercise has been often remarkably blessed with the 
most evident tokens of the Divine presence and the out- 
pouring of his Spirit, some manifest tokens of which were 
observed in the winter and spring." ^ 

1 Greenleaf's Eccles. Sketches, pp. 134 — 6. 
2MSS. records of Session, p. 18. 



356 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

INDICATIONS OF REVIVAL. 

This " sound of a going in the tops of the mul- 
1767. berry trees," indicative of the coming of the Lord to 
Zion, soon developed itself in one of the most remark- 
able, as it was the first of revival scenes within the precincts 
of the ancient Sagadahoc, Sheepscot, and Femaquid planta- 
tions, thronghout the bounds of which it prevailed. The 
Lord first stirred up his people, who like " clouds and as 
doves to their windows," began to flock from every point. 
Of various names and denominations, scattered and living 
like sheep without a shepherd — gathering here and there 
from the distant mountain-tops and valleys of the newly-set- 
tled wilds, under the quickening influences of the word — it 
became a delicate and responsible work to embody them 
into church estate, out of elements so het«rogeneous. 

But to this task Mr. Murray applied himself with great 
fidelity and success. 

APPLICATION FOR CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. 

Eleven men and twenty women, from the circumjacent 
settlements and plantations, " members of other churches," 
made application to be incorporated in the church. It is 
eminently desirable that original forms ( and the form is 
often essential to the successful execiition of a duty ) should 
not be forgotten, if permitted to pass into desuetvide. There 
ever has been a " due order" to be observed in the church 
service, which, if not essential as a guarantee of Divine 
favor, yet, when neglected, it has been the precursor of the 
Divine displeasure. A spirit of innovation, begetting neg- 
lect and depreciation of ancient rites, duties, and forms of 
faith and service, now prevails, foreboding the vitter efface- 
ment of " ancient landmarks" in the church, and the entire 
abandonment of those metes and bounds whereon she was 
accustomed to "lengthen her cords and strengthen her 
stakes." 



AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 357 

Is it, therefore, matter of surprise that weakness, insta- 
bility, leanness, and looseness should be marked features of 
the church ? This view is offered as our only apology for a 
detailed account of the rites, ceremonies, and practice of 
the church in Boothbay, at this early period, while in the 
freshness and fervor of her zeal. 

FORMS OP ADMISSION. 

The persons seeking the enjoyment of sealing ordinances 
in the bosom of this church were first " privately examined 
by the pastor as to their faith and knowledge of the princi- 
ples of religion ; as to their experience of a work of grace 
in their souls, and their ends in seeking, as well as their 
knowledge of the nature of the ordinances they would enjoy ; 
and as to their practice of religion in their lives and conver- 
sation." Being found, in the judgment of charity, visible 
members of the visible churcli, it was decided to receive 
them to the enjoyment of " sealing ordinances." But, as 
these persons had not been under the watch of their own 
churches, having lived remote, before a public recognition, 
of their newly-created relationship should be made, it was 
deemed as a condition of their admission to sealing ordinan- 
ces, that " they should first be propounded before the con- 
gregation." 

This was done " by adjuring tlie assembly in the name of 
the Most High God, on three Lord's days in time of public 
worship, as they should answer at his awful bar, — as they 
would not conspire for his dishonor, and overthrow the 
church of Christ, — as they would not be found guilty of 
the blood of souls, — if they knew any matter of just objec- 
tion against any of the persons propounded, they should 
freely declare it." Such was the solemn and impressive 
ceremony preliminary to a recognition of membersliip in 
the body of Christ. An appointed day was assigned, wlien 
at the pastor's lodgings, in the presence of all, objections, if 



358 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

any, would be heard. No one appeared against any one of 
the candidates. Here the terms of the covenant of grace 
were made Icnown ; and each, with uplifted hand, having 
adopted it and promised compliance with divine ordinances, 
was incorporated. 

PUBLIC ESPOUSALS. 

A sabbath was now announced, in which the sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper was to be celebrated ; and a free invi- 
tation was extended to " all of such and such qualifications 
as were there mentioned, to come and welcome to the sacred 
feast." In prospect of this sacred festival, many came for- 
ward to join therein, to which those only were admitted on 
examination and approval, as before described in manner 
and form — " for several persons applied whom it was thought 
necessary to discourage and debar." On Tuesday before 
the preparation Sabbath, the approved communicants assem- 
bled for public worship according to previous appointment ; 
when a large congregation besides gathered at the place of 
meeting, " and evident tokens of God's gracious presence 
were seen and felt by many." 

PREPARATION FOR COMMUNION. 

The preparation Sabbath at lengtli dawned, and the entire 
day was spent in considering the nature of the Lord's Sup- 
per, — the qualifications of worthy communicants, — the per- 
ils of unworthily communicating were plainly set forth in 
an exposition of the inquiry, " Friend, how camest tliou in 
hither, not having a wedding garment ? " and " the ends 
proper to have in view in coming, and the business proper 
at the Lord's Table." The following Wednesday was ap- 
pointed as a day of public humiliation and fasting in town. 
The congregation met. All were summoned to unite in the 
solemn transaction. A solemn confession was made before 
Almighty God. Their iniquities, as they stood " particu- 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION .iRY PERIOD. 359 

larly opposed to each of the ten commandments of the law, 
and to all the articles of the gospel with their peculiar aggra- 
vations, were spread out before the Lord" — as the narrator 
records, " accusing, judging, and condemning ourselves for 
them — by which our hearts were rendered unfit and our- 
selves unworthy to make so near an approach to him as we 
had the prospect of attempting the ensuing Sabbatli." And 
then the benefits of redemption were opened, " as leading 
the way of tlie congregation over to a solemn and particular 
covenant with God, in which we all were given away for- 
ever" — and the whole concluded by charging every one 
with the " great work of self-examination, and secret per- 
sonal renewing their covenant by word or writing that day." 

DISTRIBUTION OF TOKENS. 

The Saturday afternoon preceding the great festival Sab- 
bath was occupied in a preparatory sermon on the dying 
love of Christ, and on this occasion, the pastor, " before dis- 
missing the congregation, came down from the pulpit, and 
standing before the Communion table, declared the qualifi- 
cations of such as shoiild be welcome to approach the ordi- 
nance in view ; pul^lished a free invitation addressed to par- 
ticular characters ; and then poured out on the table a great 
number of small square pieces of lead, on which the initial 
letters of his name were stamped in capitals." The congre- 
gation were informed that it was a custom of Presbyterians 
to distribute these, as tokens of admission to the privileges 
of Christ's disciples, before the administration of the Lord's 
•supper, by which the church intends to guard against the 
approach of persons not approved ; no one being permitted 
to sit down at that table without delivering his token into 
the hands of the elder, who is to be stationed at the end of 
the table for that purpose ; and to give every communicant 
a previous opportunity of knowing all his fellow communi- 
cants at that feast, both that they may have the more partic- 



360 , ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

ular inducement to sit together in the bonds of love, and 
that time may be given them to object to any person who 
has broken the law of charity, and that this token may be a 
perpetual monitor to him that takes it of his great obliga- 
tions — reminding him of liis high privileges, and need of 
preparation and self-examination. 

Before the delivery of these tokens, solemn prayer was 
made ; and then an exhortation given, during which the 
communicants were desired, one by one, to come up and 
receive their tokens from the pastor's hand, and then return 
to their seats. Thus was made the distribution. 

SACRAMENTAL FESTIVAL. 

On the morning of the sacramental Sabbath, the congre- 
gation convened at nine o'clock, attracted by the auspicious 
event, so long looked forward to with deep and tender inter- 
est by all the inhabitants of the circumjacent region. 

SPREADING THE TABLES. 

The tables then whre set in form of a triangle, extending 
to the- three principal alleys of the house, " allowing room 
for the communicants to sit on each side of each table, 
and for the serving officers to pass at the communicants' 
back. The tables met and joined in the midst, just before 
the pulpit. In the center was set a small table, on which 
the elements were placed, where also the minister was to 
stand during the administration. All the tables were spread 
with clean linen. Six platters were set in two rows par- 
allel to each other ; and on each platter a communion cup, 
and " fronting each table a flagon full of red wine, the only 
sort used by Presbyterians in this ordinance." 

Between the two rows of cups, were set in the middle 
three large dishes covered with a fine napkin, the central 
one containing a large common loaf of bread, pared and 
scored so as to be easily broken by the minister's hands. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD, 361 

The serving officers were stationed, one at the door to receive 
the contribution of the assembling congregation, an elder 
and a deacon were stationed at each table, the former to 
receive the tokens as the communicants sat down, and both 
to aid in sending the bread and wine along the table, and 
an elder was stationed at the store or closet under the pul- 
pit, where the elements were kept, to supply any deficiency 
in the elements served. 

FENCING THE SACRAMENTAL TABLES. 

Appropriate services of worship were performed on the 
Sabbath ; but were concluded by an exercise peculiar to the 
occasion, called " Fencing the table.'''' This was a formu- 
lary debarring in various particulars all those characters 
supposed to be comprehended under the terms described 
" as the ignorant, the unbelieving, and profane.'''' 

The act of fencing ended, the communicants were invited 
to be seated, to give opportunity for which a hymn was sung ; 
and during the singing, the minister descended from the 
pulpit, and took his seat at the " Element table " in the cen- 
ter. Then, as the tokens were taken up by the elders, the 
minister arose and spoke ; and as he begun, the officers 
uncovered the bread and vessels on the table before him. 
The tables were then served, and the elements distributed 
to the communicants. A solemn thanksgiving was then 
offered to God, and a conclusion of the sacred scene was 
had in the benediction ; and on the Monday following, at 
eleven o'clock, a thanksgiving sermon was preached, " and 
the solemn work was closed." 

THE FIRST GREAT REVIVAL. 

It will not seem strange that the narrative sliould 
proceed to relate " that it had been very observable 1767. 
through the whole of the winter that a very unusual 
seriousness and solemnity appeared amongst the generality 



362 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

of the people, accompanied with an insatiable desire after 
the word." Several persons were awakened to an anxious 
concern for their souls, but nothing remarkable until the 
sacramental season described. Then there were such symp- 
toms of the powerful and special presence of the God of 
grace as every one might discern. It was a solemn, sweet, 
and glorious season. Many of God's children were filled 
with the joy of their Lord, and many poor souls brought in 
to sec their need of that Savior they had shamefully neglect- 
ed. The facts were evident the ensuing week, and on the 
next Sabbath. 

RAPID SPREAD OF RELIGIOUS INTEREST. 

Immediately the pastor, at the call of several of the neigh- 
boring towns, visited them on the gospel errand. " Begin- 
ning with Squam [now Westport] and Freetown, [now 
Edgecomb] he visited Pownalborough, [Dresden and Wis- 
casset] Shcepscot, tlie head of the tide, [Alna] Walpole, 
Harrington, <tc." During this tour, Mr. Murray preached 
every day for two weeks which it consumed. The work of 
God was glorious. Every day it appeared some were awak- 
ened. Many souls, old and young, were pricked to the 
heart, many obliged to cry out in their distress : some were 
clearly brought into the light of the gospel. " It seemed in 
all these places that the Almighty hand was displayed with 
such power as if the Lord was resolved to make his word 
bear down every tiling before it," 

REMARKABLE FEATURES OF THE REVIVAL. 

On Mr. Murray's return from his extended round of labor 
in the neighboring towns on this glorious occasion, he told 
the wonderful works of God, both from the pulpit and at 
the society and the Wednesday exercise. The news was 
very joyful to all who had ever tasted anything of religion — 
yery alarming to the sinner — and it confirmed greatly the 



AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.. 363 

convictions of such as had been awakened. Religion became 
the cojiversation of all companies. The voice of opposition 
was struck dead. Upon almost every occasion of public 
worship (which then was more frequent than usual), the 
congregation was drowned in tears, and some new instances 
of conviction or comfort appeared. Tlie pastor's lodgings 
were then daily crowded with poor wounded souls, that 
knew not what to do, with whom he often found sweet em- 
ployment day and night, sometimes till three o'clock in the 
morning, and often till midnight. Tlie intermission seasons 
on the Sabbath were taken up entirely in tlie works of piety. 
Some would repair wherever they saw any person deemed 
an experienced Christian ( all of whom were found greatly 
quickejied at that time ) to lay their cases open to ; some to 
the minister, some to secret prayer, and great companies 
would retire to the woods to sing hymns of praise, so that 
one might almost all the time hear the wilderness singing 
hosannas ! It seemed sometimes as if heaven was come 
down to dwell on earth. The Wednesday exercises were 
also greatly blessed, especially on the young people ; and 
the children's days, in some of which we could see the dear 
little babes, by forty in a company, crying and weeping on 
account of their state, while their tender parents, with 
bursting hearts and streaming eyes, stood by, and in some — 
particularly once in the west end of the town — the whole 
congregation seemed to l)e taken hold of. After the bless- 
ing w^as pronounced, their hearts were so wounded that near 
thirty persons, men and women, cried out, whilst a goodly 
number of God's children were overcome with joy at the 
sight. 

Thus it continued all that summer. " What fruits may 
appear, what numbers were brought home, we presume 
not to guess," says the narrator ; " but for the sake of fol- 
lowing ages, into whose hands these records may fall, we 
cannot help leaving this our joint public testimony to the 



364 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE. 

glory of God, that there has been an evident, powerful, and 
glorious work of God's Spirit carried on in this and the 
neighboring Towns." ^ 

Such are the original records of the causes, fruits, and 
agencies of the first and most extensive and glorious revival 
that ever occurred witliin the precincts of the ancient Sheep- 
scot, Peniaquid, and Sagadahoc ; for it appears that Mr. 
Murray, at this time, and from the midst of tliese scenes of 
deep and thrilling interest and importance, " was called to 
visit Pemaquid, Muscongus, Broad Cove, Walpole, and Har- 
rington, consuming two weeks, in which he preached every 
day ; and it appeared that the work of God was not small 
in any of them, especially at Broad Cove." At the call of 
the town of Bristol, on another visit a church was organized 
and elders ordained by him. ^ 

This revival must have worked deeply among the clcineuts 
of society, insinuating its saving power into the adjoining 
towns, where a tliin and scattered population had recently 
planted themselves. ^ Tlie heterogeneous mass developed 
many interesting features under the ferment of this grand 
religious impulse, made up as society was of Quakerism, 
formalism, and error. " Mary Allen of the district of Free- 
town ( Edgecomb ) and certain others, her family," Quakers 
by education and profession, became awakened and con- 
verted, and soon after connected with the Presbyterian 
Cliurch, publicly renouncing their former views, and enter- 
ing into covenant with God and his church. How pungent, 
then, must have been this truly great and glorious work ! 

This great revival spread throughout the Dunbar towns in 
tlie Province of Sagadahoc ; and at the ancient central 
points it concentrated its life-giving power, and lingered in 
the hearts and memories of that generation till it left inef- 



1 Records of Session Book, Boothbay, pp. 23, 24. 

2 Greealeaf 's Ecclesiastical Sketches, p. 138. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 365 

faceable impressions on the age. Georgetown ^ shared 
largely in this wonderful effusion of the Spirit of God. 

As an illustration of the religious enthusiasm of the day, 
and the zeal of Presbyterian matrons, and the influence of 
Murray as a religious teacher, a fact in the history of Mrs. 
Miller, an early settler of the town of Warren, is here given. 
She is represented to have been an amiable and godly wom- 
an, and in plain attire — always scrupulously clean and neat 
— she would always attend churcli, walking bare-footed 
thither, after the fashion of her country, but putting on her 
shoes and taking off her bonnet when she reached the place 
of worship. During the revivals attendant on the preach- 
ing of the Rev. John Murray of Boothbay, whenever he 
held meetings at Damariscotta, with others of her country- 
women, Mrs. Miller would foot it thither, through the almost 
pathless woods, to hear him. ^ 

BROAD BAY PLANTATIONS. 

The German colonists, though destitute at first of regular 
preaching, constantly sustained religious worship, led by a 
Mr. Ulmer. Such was their habit till the settlements were 
broken up, as we have before related. After the return of 
the colonists, this personage combined in himself the offices 
of priest, prince, and general. ^ 

John M. Schaffer followed. A great singer and 
smart preacher, he led the hearts of the people captive. 17G2. 
His moral character was clouded ; his heart was self- 
ish and destitute of virtue. A woman of great personal 
charms, the wife of another, was too powerful for his virtue. 
He seduced and eloped with her to this country, abandoning 
his own wife in the father-land. He gained wealth and fame 

1 In Georgetown about this time ( 1 765) there was a great revival of 
religion. — Hon. M. L. Hill. 

2 Eaton's Annals, p. 122. 

3 Annals of Warren, p. 115. 



866 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 

as physician of both soul and body. Inspection of urine, 
blood-letting, and nostrums made up his practice ; and a 
sloop's hold of wood often went to pay his poor parishioner 
patients' bills. 

Profane, intemperate, and extortionate, he can be viewed 
in no other light by the historian than a wolf in sheep's 
clothing, who, recognizing his own monstrous doul^le char- 
acter, was wont to excuse and explain, or apologize, by say- 
ing, — " When I have my pluck coat o??, den I am a minis- 
ter, and you must do as I say : but when I have my green 
coat on, den I am a toctor.''^ ^ 

A Moravian from Germany, by the name of Cillcy, 
1768. visited the Broad Bay i)lantations. Spiritual and 

devoted in his services, many were converted to his 
views. His flock with himself, two years after, emigrated 
to and settled in North Carolina. Three hundred families 
thus departing, left a void in the heart of tlie Ancient 

Dominions. The vacant fields and clcarhigs were 
1770. not left to solitude and decay, but soon were rcoccu- 

pied liy colonists from Massaclmsetts ; and wore again 
filled with busy life and labor. 

1 Eaton's Annals, p. 117. 



